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Incredibly the season looks over with almost a third of the home programme still to play and that will be bad news for the money men at Turf Moor with crowds surely set to drop.
It has without doubt been a nightmare end to the two weeks of travelling and today’s 3-2 defeat against Walsall at the Bescot Stadium was even worse than that 4-2 reverse at Bramall Lane last Wednesday.
It was worse because to put it simply Walsall were poor. Sheffield United had turned in an excellent performance against us but today the opposition were there for the taking but we were not able to take.
There were changes again today and it was certainly no surprise to see Mark McGregor given a chance at right-back with Fred West having had another bad game at Sheffield and once again Stan virtually changed his entire midfield with only Paul Weller surviving as Glen, Steve Davis and Brisser all lost their places.
It was a return to the system that had served us well, result wise, until the defeat at Watford with Ian Moore back on the right hand side of midfield. And to be fair we started well. We dominated the early exchanges and could so easily have been in front.
Even Tony Grant had brought a pair of shooting boots with him and he came close twice, once having a shot blocked but with the other seeing Walsall keeper James Walker make a superb save.
The previously quiet away fans were starting to get into the game but midway through the first half we conceded what can only be described as a soft goal and that was to change the game in dramatic style.
Walsall sent in nothing more than a routine cross from the left but with Driss, Coxy and Marlon there it should not have been a threat. However Jorge Leitao had no problem in heading in.
The heads appeared to drop and it came as no surprise when Walsall doubled the lead just ten minutes later and this goal was to complete a miserable week for Marlon Beresford who had the ball in his hands but failed to hold it.
The bright start was by now forgotten and this was turning into another bad afternoon and we were thankful that there were no more goals by the half time interval.
The fans were disgruntled and it was obvious that Stan was too when he decided to bring in three subs for the start of the second half. Steve Davis, Glen and Robbie Blake replaced Coxy, Grant and Ian Moore.
But after a brighter start it really was not better and with 66 minutes on the clock Walsall made it three. Now Stan has this notion that we always bounce back but that hasn’t been the case on occasions and it was now beginning to look as though we were going to throw another one in. We haven’t been too particular this season and Walsall wouldn’t be the first rank bad side to give us a hammering.
The only bit of good news was the return of Robbie Blake. He had surely done enough at Sheffield to warrant a return to the starting line up but he was now posing the question as to how he could ever be left out.
Even so there was no sign of us getting back into the game but we did get some sort of lifeline when goalkeeper James Walker hauled down Gareth Taylor. A penalty it was and even worse for Walsall, Walker was sent off.
It took an age for Walsall to make a substitution and get keeper Gavin Ward on to face the penalty, so much so you have to ask why the referee didn’t just make Walsall get on with the game.
But Blake converted the spot kick almost four minutes after it had been awarded for what could only be a consolation.
Gareth Taylor missed a chance, firing hopelessly wide from the edge of the box but with four minutes stoppage time being played Glen scored a stunner to pull it back to 3-2. We even came close to an equaliser as Taylor hit a chance over the bar before the final whistle blew to condemn us to defeat number three in six days.
Don’t be fooled by the scoreline though, this was another dreadful performance that earned us just as many points as we deserved, precisely none. And with it must surely go any remaining hopes of getting into the play offs.
Our best player was Robbie Blake and surely he has to be on from the start. Admittedly he hasn’t been at his best recently but the fact is that we are a better side with him on the pitch than we are when he is sat watching.
It’s ten years since our season ended early but once we have reached Stan’s first target of 50 points then that will be it, we will not be making the play offs because quite simply we are not good enough to. Apart from a run in September and October we have never shown enough consistency and there have been far too many bad defeats.
We can unpack now and settle back at home after the five game tour, the next five are all at home and we don’t set off on our travels again for four weeks. After the last week that comes as a relief.
The teams today were,
Walsall: James Walker, Darren Bazeley, Tony Barras, Matt Carbon, Zigor Aranalde, Steve Corica (Gary Birch 90), Vinny Samways, Martin O’Connor, Pedro Matias, Junior (Gavin Ward 73), Jorge Leitao (David Zdrilic 84). Subs not used: Carl Robinson, Chris Shuker.
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Mark McGregor, Ian Cox (Steve Davis 45), Driss Diallo, Graham Branch, Paul Cook, Ian Moore (Robbie Blake 45), Paul Weller, Tony Grant (Glen Little 45), Alan Moore, Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Nik Michopoulos, Dimitri Papadopoulos.
Referee: Peter Walton (Winwick, Northants).