It's 2010 - but what about 2009?

Last updated : 01 January 2010 By Tony Scholes

From the impossible dream in January, to realising that dream in May and twenty Premier League games so far, it was an incredible journey and I've not allowed any of it to be spoiled by today's speculation centring on manager Owen Coyle and managerless Bolton Wanderers.

Yesterday I took the time to watch the full Sky coverage again of our day at Wembley. It remains, for now, on my Sky+ box and before leaving home for each match this season I've gone into that recording at 75 minutes and then at 177 minutes, yes I know the times off by heart for the goal and the final whistle. Because of a box upgrade I'll lose that recording next Thursday, but three copies on DVD should suffice.

Who could ever have possibly imagined the year in front of us when we travelled down to London to face Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup just after the New Year celebrations had died down a year ago.

We'd gone into the year on the back of two unexpected defeats against Barnsley and Doncaster and in this first game we played out a rather tedious 0-0 draw in a game where, quite frankly, nothing happened.

January was an incredible month. We took the run of league defeats to five in succession before finally getting back to winning ways in the league on the very last day of the month against Charlton.

By then we'd progressed in the FA Cup and were awaiting another replay, this time against West Brom, but we'd suffered heartache with the defeat to Spurs in the semi-final of the Carling Cup on that never to be forgotten night.

We were just minutes away from a major cup final, only to see it cruelly snatched away at the death. No wonder Harry Redknapp could do no more than shrug his shoulders at the end, he knew how unjust it all was.

From that night up to the Saturday I didn't want to know football. It really had hurt, and even having reached the Hawthorns for the cup tie against West Brom I can't say I really wanted to watch another football match.

Of course I wasn't going to miss it no matter how I felt and I'm so pleased I was there. That was one very special afternoon. I'll never forget it and I do believe that was the day when I had this realisation that the Spurs defeat had far from ended our season.

I've never witnessed such togetherness amongst the Burnley fans. It was as if we we'd all suffered together against Spurs and we were all going to pull through together. We were joined by the players, make no mistake about that. Having played well we went 2-1 down yet this spirit appeared from nowhere and never was a late equaliser more deserved than that day.

You'd have thought we'd had a Wembley reprieve at the final whistle. The players came over to the fans as one and the fans just hugged each other. Yes, we'd pulled through together and we were ready to continue the fight.

I knew we had that fight to push for more and how we pushed. We might have lost the next game at Watford but after that there were only two more league defeats. By the time we won at Plymouth I was more than confident of a play off place, a play off place which we duly got despite Preston trying to spoil it with that late win at Birmingham as we travelled back from Southampton.

Nerves in the semi-final against Reading were nothing compared to Wembley. Looking back at the game I know now that we were comfortable winners against the Blades, but at the time I don't think I'd been as nervous since Orient. No, I'm damn sure I haven't.

It was a day that will live with us all forever. Winning at Wembley is very special but if we'd beaten Spurs and won the Carling Cup it couldn't possibly have been as good as this was. Burnley were a Premier League club, I kept saying it to myself to try and believe it and finally I did.

How do you top that? Probably by beating Manchester United in the Premier League and have Fergie squirming. He didn't even dare to accuse Alan Wiley of being unfit that night and he even had a kind word for Robbie Blake after his wonder strike. Alongside him was his trusted assistant Micky Phelan. How, I wonder, did he feel as his old club got one over on the Premier League Champions?

It's not been perfect this season. The table shows we've won just five of our games and haven't won at all since we beat Hull in October. Away from home has been a worry. Incredibly, despite it being a brilliant year, we've won only two away league games out of twenty (Blackpool and Plymouth), and that's our lowest return in a calendar year since 1983.

I'm not going to get too worried. I know how difficult this league is for us and I'm not going to start complaining about the away results, although I would love a win the next time we travel in the league.

I've been a Burnley supporter since 1960, yes 50 years, and obviously some years have been better than others. I have to say that 2009 is one of the most memorable of the lot. We've gone and achieved something that I thought was beyond us, never did I expect to see Burnley Football Club in the Premier League in its current guise.

But there we are - we've beaten Everton, Sunderland, Birmingham and Hull as well as Manchester United and we've got a fighting chance of still being in there next August.

Yes, it's 2010 and I'm looking forward. Did I say one last nostalgic look back at 2009? I reckon, like every other Burnley fan, I'll continue to look back at last year. Can we better that?