An end to March or is it?

Last updated : 01 April 2003 By Tony Scholes

Into April but Stan is still aiming for the play offs
But it didn’t take long before the memory of March came flooding back. I turned over my Burnley FC calendar to find that Glen Little was one of the players on show for the coming month, the very player we had sent away last week to raise a bit of money.

This was a surprising and outrageous end to what had been the worst month for the Clarets in some time, a month that started with us still having a reasonable chance of making the play offs and a more than good chance of reaching the FA Cup Semi-Final for the first time in 29 years. But how it all went wrong.

February had ended on a high with a brilliant 3-0 thrashing of the Premiership’s homeless club Fulham and everything was set up for what we hoped would be a triumphant 31 days.

It started well enough in terms of results with a 1-0 win at Stoke on the first day of the month although maybe we should have taken note of the performance more than the result, that was the real key to how the month would go. Stoke were to put it bluntly an awful side but had Dean West not hit a shot like no other he has hit in nearly four years at Burnley we would not have beaten them. The ninety minutes was a dreadful advertisement for First Division football.

Then on to Millwall and probably our best football of the month, but only for half a game. We were in front 1-0 but the performance in the second half was appalling. Referee Cooperman had a nightmare but we could not blame him for the way we played. Millwall grabbed a late equaliser but had that not gone in we would have climbed to our highest position of the season, and one we know only too well, seventh place.

But none of us were too bothered because it was the cup on the Sunday. I am absolutely convinced I saw the team coach arrive at Vicarage Road with the players on board but I am not sure what happened because they certainly didn’t turn up once it got to kick off time. Talk about a let down on the big occasion, this one beat the lot.

Many believe that we didn’t even try to win it but were content to get a 0-0 draw and try and make some more money in a replay. I would certainly not disagree with that sentiment. Although it was the same eleven players this team was far removed from the one that had beaten Fulham. We had even done a deal before the game to share the prize money

It was an embarrassing ninety minutes in front of the BBC cameras who were showing a whole Burnley game live for the first time since the 1962 FA Cup Final. They certainly won’t be in any hurry to come back.

"The league is our priority," said Stan after the cup exit. I’m not sure anyone believed him and certainly the players didn’t. After the dreadful performance at Sheffield United we were promised by Stan that it would be better in all the remaining games.

At Walsall it went worse and he accused them of ‘Having a laugh’. If anyone was having a laugh then I wish they had told me because I found nothing funny at all throughout the Bescot debacle.

The whole month had been played away from home up to this point and the players were apparently keen to get back to the Turf. It has made little difference and we have picked up just one point from three games since to end the month.

To put it all into perspective, and apart from the cup defeat, only three sides have picked up less points than us during March. They are Coventry, Watford and Derby.

To cap everything though we have allowed Glen Little to go to Reading for the rest of the season. This is no ordinary player but the one player we look to for some inspiration. He hasn’t been playing well but when he is out there then the chances are he could just turn a game round. Remember Spurs?

He’s gone for a hundred grand, a figure apparently worth a lot more than the feeling of the fans. I happen to think that this is one of the worst decisions ever and will be one that comes back to haunt the club.

We needn’t worry though about everything going wrong, it’s not our fault, ITV Digital are to blame. Apparently the collapse of the TV company must not have had the same effect on a lot of the other clubs.

How do we forget March though, Glen is now staring down at me from the calendar and this morning I received a newsletter from the club telling me that Ternent is aiming for the play offs.

Thanks BFC for making sure I don't forget it.