It had been a long time coming, an interminable wait of growing anxiety was alleviated at Turf Moor yesterday when the authentic Sean Dyche Burnley team showed up and put in an authentic Sean Dyche Burnley performance.
As the acquisition of three points from the visit of Brighton had become an urgent necessity, Burnley received some help from the gods of meteorology, as East Lancashire greeted the visitors with a gloomy, rain-sodden aspect. Turf Moor had laid on its most inhospitable welcome.
On the previous Wednesday evening, also at Turf Moor, Burnley had suffered the latest in a string of defeats, this one at the hands of Liverpool. But although Jurgen Klopp’s Reds showed superior class, the Clarets at least displayed some spirit. This augured well for yesterday’s encounter.
Throughout the following ninety minutes, Burnley were back to their old, gritty, awkward, resolute, determined selves. Burnley have got where they are and achieved what they have achieved through the application of sheer hard work in an “all for one and one for all” environment. They rarely produce football that flows with an easy grace, but it can be effective and yesterday it needed to be.
True to the industrial nature of Burnley’s game plan, the deciding goal was never going to trouble the Goal of the Month adjudicators; a cross, producing a goal-mouth melee leading to a Jack Cork shot which was deflected in importantly off James Tarkowski’s chest.
In truth, Burnley established control of this game, in the sense that although Brighton had the majority of possession, Burnley were able to defend their lines purposefully and securely. But for a stoppage-time bombardment of increasing desperation, which obliged Burnley to defend a succession of corners, Brighton offered little in the way of attacking menace.
For the Clarets, yesterday was all about the three points, had they failed to collect them, they would have faced the daunting prospect of the upcoming fixtures against Tottenham and Arsenal mired in the bottom three and with the confidence scale reading zero.
As it is, Burnley are still deep in trouble and yesterday’s win by no means signifies that the Clarets have turned the corner, but it just might be that the corner has emerged into view somewhere in the distance.
An opinion on the aftermath on the match from yesterday's game at Turf Moor from uber Claret, Dave Thornley. (TEC).