Travelling Clarets are miles better off

Last updated : 30 May 2003 By Andy Robinson

Firstly caps are well and truly doffed to the London Clarets, South West Clarets and every Burnley fan that travels any real distance just to see the HOME matches but the majority of Burnley/Lancashire based Clarets are set to save some journey time next season.

Last year it was as bad as it is ever likely to get with a massive 652 miles added to the combined travelling distance to all of our opponents, which as we pointed out is roughly the distance between Penzance and Aberdeen.

For season 2003/04 however the clock has been wound back a bit. The 6 teams we have lost were a distance of 1045 miles away and they are to be replaced by clubs a mere 822 miles away, a saving on the season as a whole of 223 miles which coincidentally is almost exactly the distance between Burnley and Cardiff. I suppose in other seasons you could have called this an omen but seeing as we’re going there anyway maybe it isn’t.

With the trips to Portsmouth and Brighton no longer necessary and short hops to Wigan and Crewe in store it always looked like being a better season though it was rather selfish of Bolton to stay up at the expense of the 250 mile West Ham.

Anyway for the Burnley based fan that attends every away game you will save approximately 5 hours of travelling time or 10 miles a match which doesn’t seem a lot admittedly but it is probably a case of being thankful for small mercies.

If anyone is interested I make it a total of 3562 miles to travel to every away game next season and I'm sure that doesn't include the 'scenic routes'. Just to put that in to perspective it is the same as the road journey from Burnley to Bucharest and back again so it's hats off to travelling Clarets everywhere.