I was very careful this morning having had a banana at breakfast. I made sure the banana skin was carefully placed in a sealed back and deposited in the bin.
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That has changed a lot with Stan Ternent's Burnley, the last home game against Grimsby was a potential disaster waiting to happen but today's was even more so. I had thoughts that we would completely outplay our visitors but would not be able to put the ball in the net and they would nip in and get a late winner.
So with all that I am pleased to return home with a 3-2 win, another three points and the Clarets seven points clear at the top of the league. It may not have been our best performance of the season but there won't be another game that wins us more points.
The Unprofessionals of Stockport were in fact pretty professional today and did what is expected of a team at the bottom. They came with the intention of playing very little football but to spoil as much as they could, to play a physical game and to use that awful offside game. It is difficult to criticise their approach, after all this is a team with just two wins all season against the top of the league who have just won their last five games.
I really hate the offside game and it is not made any easier when the assistants don't seem to be able to apply the law with any degree of consistency whatsoever. I'm the first to admit that some of the offside flags were perfectly correct decisions but others were just wrong. The game is never going to flow with this sort of game and neither is it going to flow with a referee who seems to want to stop the game as often as possible. He never looked as though he really wanted to play and advantage and was always quick to make sure it took too long to get the game restarted after a whistle.
In this sort of game, when all the pressure is on you to win against lowly rivals, it is sometimes vital to get an early goal. Sometimes if it doesn't come the crowd can get a bit restless and that can have an effect on the players. Not to worry though as we won a penalty after just nine minutes that was coolly put away by our new penalty taker Glen Little. Just what the doctor ordered and I sat back waiting for us to run Stockport ragged.
No such luck and within two minutes Nik Michopoulos presented them with an equaliser in much the same way as he gave Preston their first goal. Stockport had done some homework on Nik and on several occasions put him under pressure from balls into the box. The first got them a goal but eventually Kuqi was yellow carded for his second assault on Nik although I still think he was lucky to get away with the first one.
There is very little to report from the rest of the first half, it was probably the worst 45 minutes of football played on the Turf all season but we weren't behind and surely the second half would get better once Stan had had a word with them. There is no doubt that the suspended Tony Grant was missed, without him there seemed to be a lot less passing of the ball in midfield resulting in more long balls being played.
The half time interval was both exciting and embarrassing. Billy Hamilton was welcomed back onto the Turf to make the half time draw, it's almost 18 years since Billy played here but he hardly looks any different. He got a fantastic reception as he came out and then again as he made his way around the pitch. However the less than excellent cheer leaders came out again and even as they came out one of them fell over. I'm not one for cheer leaders to be honest but these young girls are either not very good at it or appearing in front of a big crowd is too much for them. Their performance this afternoon was abruptly cut short.
Onto the second half and to be honest it did not get better. Stockport continued to make life difficult for us and the spark that has been so evident recently was clearly missing. Even Arthur at the back was having a less than inspired afternoon and poor Glen was being shadowed at times by not one but two markers. My dad used to tell me that if a player is being double marked then somebody should be having a blinder somewhere. I looked but did not find.
Substitutions can change games, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Two substitutions during the second half definitely changed the game. Stockport had already made one change at the start of the second half but they then introduced new signing Luke Beckett. He had signed the day before from Chesterfield for £100,000 and this was his debut.
Suddenly Stockport, for the first time in the game, started to attack the Burnley goal. For a ten minute spell we were well and truly on the rack. Nik Michopoulos redeemed himself with a couple of saves and Stockport were guilty of at least on bad miss.
Then the master of the substitution made his first change. Stan gave Paul Weller the nod and he replaced Alan Moore. It took him a short while to find the pace of the game but then with his first positive contribution we were back in front. He played a ball through for Ian Moore who made a good run before finding Glen Little and from his cross Gareth Taylor headed in.
At last this game was looking like top v bottom and five minutes later Ian Moore got a third against his former club. This goal gave me great satisfaction for more reasons than one. It is the first goal Mooro has scored on the Turf since the 5-2 win against Walsall but more so because of the attitude of the Unprofessionals fans towards him. He gave them good service and at the end of the day only left Edgeley Park because the club decided he had to go to bring in the money. You would think that would earn him a standing ovation and not the abuse their fans gave him. Is that really the best you can offer for a former player?
That was it, they were never really coming back from that. Stan took the opportunity to make another couple of changes as the clock run down. Just as everyone had worked out that this win meant we would be top for Christmas we conceded a second to a penalty. So what the extra minutes were up even as the penalty went in. We didn't know the referee was going to have ‘3 minutes extra' held up and then play five. One last throw of the dice won them a corner but it came to nothing and that was that.
It wasn't the best performance you are ever likely to see from this Burnley side but once again we have picked up three points. That's six wins on the bounce and yes WE ARE SEVEN POINTS CLEAR AT THE TOP. What more can you ask when people are not always as careful as I am and leave banana skins all over the place.
I just wonder whether Brendan Elwood was quick enough to turn his head away today as the Burnley goals went in. I really hope so, I wouldn't have wanted him to miss another Burnley victory against his Unprofessionals of Stockport.
The Man of the Match from the sponsors was given to Lee Briscoe. I'm not going to disagree with that, I thought he had an excellent game in midfield. A close second for me though was Ian Moore who gave hiss ex-colleagues no rest whatsoever and scored a deserved goal.
Everything is looking up, even the attendance was. Apart from the Man City game (full away end) and the Grimsby game (£5 admission) this was the highest attendance of the season. Let's hope it keeps going up as we stay at the top of the league – now did I say WE ARE SEVEN POINTS CLEAR AT THE TOP OF THE LEAGUE?
The teams today were,
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch (Gordon Armstrong 75), Glen Little, Kevin Ball, Lee Briscoe, Alan Moore (Paul Weller 60), Ian Moore (Dimitri Papadopoulos 88), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Luigi Cennamo, Brad Maylett.
Stockport County: Lee Jones, Aaron Lescott (Keith Briggs 45), Colin Woodthorpe, Ali Gibb, Gary McSheffrey (Luke Beckett 57), Damien Delaney, Mike Flynn, Petri Helin, Kevin Ellison, Shefki Kuqi, Leo Roget. Subs not used: Sam Turner, Carlton Palmer, Scott Taylor.
Referee: Andy Hall (Birmingham).
