Owen Coyle is Manager of the Month

A quick look at the league table at the end of August shows Burnley next to bottom of the table with just two points from four games, only one goal scored, and despite keeping two clean sheets we'd conceded seven goals in the other two games.

Move on a month - we are now fourth in the table with a very healthy fifteen points from nine games, and that means thirteen of those points have been won from four wins and a draw in September, and that draw, at Swansea, was just ninety seconds away from a win.

Our points tally was the highest in the Championship for September, one more than Wolves and three more than anyone else with Reading, Plymouth, Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday all on ten points. We scored eleven goals in those games and only Reading had a better goal difference in the month. To add to that we also beat Premier League club Fulham in the Carling Cup.

The other contenders were Mick McCarthy (Wolves), Steve Coppell (Reading) and Paul Sturrock (Plymouth).

Owen was always going to be the winner, and he becomes the first Burnley manager to win the award since Steve Cotterill won it in October 2006. Prior to that it was Stan Ternent who lifted the award in November 2001.