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There were only two in personnel. Not surprisingly Nik Michopoulos replaced Marlon Beresford in goal and Dimitri Papadopoulos came in for Tony Grant. But even with the eleven names it was surely impossible to believe that he would play Graham Branch in the centre of defence and move Steve Davis into midfield. And could he really play four strikers and then employ a 4-5-1 system? Yes of course he could.
But that’s why Stan’s the gaffer and I have to buy a season ticket (despite the Watson increases) every season. I could never have come up with that and presumably could not have come up with tonight’s performance either.
It was cheese to Saturday’s chalk in every way possible. The perceived lack of commitment against Watford was replaced with a massive desire to win no matter where you looked on the pitch.
Preston are the form team and we could not have picked a worse time to play them but we took the game to them tonight and never let them settle on the ball. Employing Papadopoulos and Ian Moore in wide positions hampered Preston and in particular Moore stopped Graham Alexander from getting forward.
One thing was evident though very early in the game. Preston had found a way of nullifying the threat of Gareth Taylor, referee Mike Halsey. He hounded the Burnley striker from first whistle until last tonight, allowed Preston to manhandle him at will and yet penalised him sometimes with no obvious reason.
But Taylor was more than playing his part and was causing the visitors no end of trouble and David Lucas had to make one smart save from him to keep the scores level.
It was Preston who came really close to scoring though, and really should have done. They were awarded a very dubious looking free kick not too far outside our box. American Eddie Lewis, one of the most obnoxious of current footballers, smashed it against the woodwork and left Richard Cresswell with the easiest chance he is ever likely to get. In front of his own supporters at the Cricket Field End he missed it and he missed it by some distance as he headed over when it looked impossible to miss.
It wasn’t a turning point, we could have considered ourselves to have been very unfortunate had we gone behind. And we were soon to be in front.
It all started with a poor Dean West cross from the right, so poor that it went beyond everyone to be picked up by Lee Briscoe on the left. He crossed it back in and Davis forced Lucas into a magnificent save from a header. This was his third excellent save but this time he couldn’t hold the ball and Papadopoulos picked it up on the right and from the tightest of angles slotted home via the far post.
It was good to see the motionless Cricket Field End and to hear the Burnley fans singing ‘1-0 to the Dingles’ as the players celebrated. Shortly afterwards it was half time and a 45 minute clean sheet.
It was funny watching the whinging Craig Brown complaining to the referee as they went off, I can only assume that he was embarrassed at the way Taylor had been treated. The half time interval though was so much better than it had been on Saturday.
There had been rumours that the recent goal glut was a Watson fundraiser, the more goals scored means more text messages going out to the subscribers and more money to Burnley Football Club. I wouldn’t put it past him.
Preston came out for the second half and went looking for an equaliser, they were certainly getting men forward and pushing us back. They even forced a save out of Nik, and it was an excellent save. He had previously had little to do other than routine stuff but was able to tip a powerful effort over.
They didn’t get a goal though and with an hour gone they seemed to be running out of ideas and we had started to get back on top. It was then we won ourselves a free kick some 30 yards from the Preston goal.
We aren’t the best with free kicks and usually the best place to look for the ball is either in the crowd or the opposition’s wall. Not this time, and Robbie Blake gave Lucas no hope whatsoever with a magnificent effort. Burnley scoring from a free kick, it just had to be a special night.
Within a minute it was almost three as Gareth Taylor hit the post with a superb header and North End were able to scramble it clear. Nik did make one more excellent save but really there was only going to be one winner now, we were not going to let them back into this one.
Incredibly with the score at 2-0 we won a corner and Preston brought all eleven players back. Their fans complain about the manager Craig Brown being negative, it was there for all to see. He looked happy enough to keep the score down.
He made three substitutions in the space of eight minutes with the very disappointing Dickson Etuhu and Simon Lynch coming off along with the petulant Lewis.
Stan, with three youngsters on the bench this time, chose to let them sit and watch the entire game although he did bring Tony Grant on with just a few minutes left.
Preston were not even troubling us at all and referee Halsey, having made us suffer all night with his antics, put Preston out of their misery after adding just two extra minutes.
There can be no explanation, we had been so bad on Saturday everyone was fearing the worst. They all went home happy, and even those who thought 49 points might not be enough could look forward to another season in Division One next time around.
The sponsors gave the man of the match to Robbie Blake, so did those who responded to the irritating requests to text in, and who am I to argue. There were other outstanding performances though. Ian Moore was excellent on the left hand side and what about Branchy in the centre of defence. But it was Blake for me.
The bad run came just as we were building our hopes up, some even dreaming of two trips to the Millennium Stadium. And then it ends just when you have given up hope. That’s football though and tonight Burnley fans will have the smiles back on their faces.
What will Stan do next?
The teams tonight were,
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Mark McGregor, Graham Branch, Lee Briscoe, Dimitri Papadopoulos (Tony Grant 85), Paul Weller, Steve Davis, Robbie Blake, Ian Moore, Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Marlon Beresford, Joel Pilkington, Richard Chaplow, Matt O’Neill.
Preston: David Lucas, Graham Alexander, Michael Jackson, Chris Lucketti, Tyrone Mears, Dickson Etuhu (Lee Cartwright 69), Paul McKenna, Brian O’Neil, Eddie Lewis (Eric Skora 77), Richard Cresswell, Simon Lynch (Pawel Abbott 73). Subs not used: Andy Lonergan, John Bailey.
Referee: Mike Halsey (Bolton).