It's time to say – I SUPPORT BURNLEY

Last updated : 02 January 2004 By Tony Scholes

It really has been a frustrating time for all of us involved in any way with Burnley Football Club and the one thing we surely all have in common is the fact that we want our club to do as well as it possibly can.

Fans have criticised the players and the club captain Graham Branch has, very wrongly in my view, criticised the fans who I happen to think were very tolerant during that awful performance on Sunday.

I suppose I am being very selfish here but Burnley doing well always gives me a lift whilst a bad run for the Clarets always drops me back down again and to be honest I am feeling more than a bit down right now. So can you help me?

This week heralds a New Year, 2004, and hopefully with it a change of fortune for the currently beleaguered Clarets. And for that to happen it needs us all pulling in the same direction. It doesn’t mean we suddenly have to rate a player we don’t think is very good but it does mean we need to give him as much support as we can when he is on that field wearing the Claret & Blue shirt.

It doesn’t mean we have to like Stan Ternent or even agree with his decisions but we need to give him our support whoever he plays and whatever changes he makes during a game whether we agree with him or not.

We haven’t been dealt the best hand but to be honest we did on more than one occasion choose the wrong cards. But that doesn’t matter any longer, we can only look forward and we can only play with the cards we have.

Yes you get frustrated but that is because you care so much about this football club of ours. That is because you hate to see us losing and to see us so close to the bottom of the league.

We, the fans, cannot go out there and play well and neither can we keep clean sheets or score goals that will help us up the table. We can have our moans – at home, at work, in the pub, on this web site’s message board. That is all fine but let’s all leave those moans behind in 2004 every time we go to watch the Clarets play.

Let’s get behind them, let’s give them some of that extra support they need when things aren’t going too well. Let’s just simply play our part to the best of our ability. All we can ask in return is that the players give us the same 100% commitment every time they pull on that shirt.

We need some wins to pull away from the bottom, we could do with a win on Saturday in the hope that we can bring in some money via a cup run.

Take a look at our I SUPPORT BURNLEY CAMPAIGN that was started at the beginning of last season. Can you support those pledges and sign up?

But this is not just about getting extra numbers for our campaign. This is all about our club – BURNLEY FOOTBALL CLUB – it is US the supporters who will suffer most if the unthinkable happens and we go down. We will be the ones who suffer watching lower division football long after players, coaches etc. have moved on.

Moan as much as you like during the week but once inside the ground, be it at home or away, please give the team as much support as you can. It might just make the difference between staying up or going down, it might just make the difference between having a cup run and not having a cup run.

If you are going to Mansfield on Saturday then please think about it before you go through the turnstiles. Wear your Claret & Blue with pride and give it everything you have – it is us the fans who it means so much to.

And it has to be the same for every remaining match this season. There will be set backs, there will be defeats and given our recent record there could be some heavy defeats. They are difficult to accept and it is difficult sometimes to bite your lips but if you can bite them then please do and keep that support going.

I’m fed up of being down in the dumps and want a lift – but it’s not just me is it? It is everyone of us who cares so much about Burnley Football Club.

We can’t make the players play well but we can make sure that for the rest of this season we all give it 100%.

COME ON YOU CLARETS