We beat Chelsea in their own back yard

Last updated : 31 December 2008 By Tony Scholes

A year ago we stepped into 2008 in eleventh place in the league with 34 points and found ourselves right in the middle of a nightmare at the half a ground known as Bloomfield Road.

This time 2009 beckons with the Clarets fifth in the table with 43 points, and to add to that we are looking forward to a two-legged Carling Cup semi-final against our old adversaries Tottenham Hotspur.

The last year has seen players come and go as is always the case. We said goodbye to James O'Connor and Jon Harley in the summer, two players who had given us excellent service over the previous three to four seasons.

Coming in were Martin Paterson, Kevin McDonald, Christian Kalvenes, Diego Penny, Remco van der Schaaf, Chris Eagles and Steven Thompson. Most of them have played their part in the climb up the table.

There have been some highlights, and one for me was the 4-2 win at QPR back in February when an Ade Akinbiyi and Andrew Cole inspired comeback made it one of the away trips of last season.

But there's no doubt where the real highlights of the year have been, the game at Chelsea and the home game against Arsenal. Chelsea is one I'll never ever forget, what an incredible night. Ade brought us back into it and the Beast went and won it for us with those astonishing penalty saves. We beat Chelsea in their own back yard. I keep saying that, one day I think it might just sink in.

Here at Clarets Mad the fundraising for the Youth Foundation has had another successful year. Madiham and the Mad Golf Day are now annual events. There was the hugely successful Hamburg Humdinger and more recently a race night that will surely become another of our annual events.

Keep your eyes out for all of them in 2009 plus the imminent news of the first pool tournament, and you are always welcome to join the First Goal Sweep that runs for all Burnley games.

All that remains is for me to offer my thanks to all those who have been of such great help during the last year. I'll start with Andy Ashworth and Richard Oldroyd. Without Andy our coverage of the youth team wouldn't be anything like as good as it is, and of course Richard has enhanced the site yet again with some superbly written and thought provoking articles.

There's also all the guest match reporters. A big thanks to all of you, and to everyone else who has written for the site during the year, be it player profiles or other articles. Keep them coming, you are all appreciated more than you know.

And finally a massive thanks to all of you who visit the site and/or use the message board. Without you it really wouldn't be worthwhile.

I hope you all personally have a fantastic 2009 and I know we all want that for the one thing that brings everyone of us together - BURNLEY FOOTBALL CLUB.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL