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I was expecting a tough afternoon. I'd seen Southampton on television five days earlier and thought they couldn't possibly be as bad as that again, and the Southampton fans I spoke to before the game were telling me this would be our easiest game of the season.
That's typical of football fans I suppose, prepared to travel all the way from the south coast to East Lancashire in the firm belief that their side will be hammered. The evidence didn't totally stack up though, they'd won at Reading and come from two goals behind to beat Preston at Deepdale.
Owen Coyle made one change to his Burnley side, Chris McCann coming back in after illness in place of Kevin McDonald. Nothing had been said about McDonald but I'm told the ticket office queue organiser announced that he had a groin injury. Mind you, he also revealed Wade Elliott would be playing at right back again and he most certainly wasn't. It was the same formation as we'd played on Tuesday against Cardiff with just that swap in the midfield.
Two weeks ago we tore into Derby and went 3-0 in the first 23 minutes or so of the game. That's the sort of start that comes around perhaps just once a season if you are very lucky but with the prediction from those Southampton fans ringing in my ears I was ready to believe them just after ten past three.
In the very first minute of the game we could have gone in front. Martin Paterson, who turned in a cracking performance, got into the box and hit a terrific shot that came back out off the underside of the bar. A first minute lead is a real boost for any side but we'd missed out by a matter of inches.
It didn't matter, we didn't have too long to wait. In only the fourth minute of the game Wade Elliott, playing against the team he supports, played a ball into the box that was deflected in to his own net by central defender Chris Perry.
1-0 to the Clarets but should goalkeeper Kelvin Davis have done better? I've seen him have some less than perfect games at Burnley in the past, remember the one against Wimbledon in 2001?
He redeemed himself in our next attack. We won a free kick on the edge of their box on the left hand side. I jokingly said: "2-0 here, Robbie will hit it into the corner". I thought he might go for the top corner to Davis' right but he went for the bottom corner to his left and only a top save prevented us extending the lead and me for once getting a prediction correct.
Six minutes gone, one goal up and we've also hit the bar and had a free kick saved. Surely it would all calm down. Not on your life. Davis had saved that free kick at the expense of a corner which reached Caldwell. The skipper header goalwards, Davis made a real hash of it and there was Joey Gudjonsson to double the lead with a header from right in front of goal.
2-0 to the Clarets and only seven minutes gone. Amazingly we weren't finished. A quickly taken Graham Alexander free kick on the right found Paterson who linked up with Elliott. The winger pulled the ball back low and there was Gudjonsson again to smash it into the roof of the net from close range. We'd gone 3-0 up again, but in half the time it took us to beat Derby. There were just over ten minutes gone.
It had to quieten down after that, and it did, but there were other goals to be had. A Chris McCann shot was saved by Davis but he didn't hold it, there again he didn't hold much all afternoon, and Paterson turned the rebound onto the post.
An Eagles shot rebounded back off the keeper but this time he recovered just in time as Paterson came storming in to try and get on the end of it.
Had the score been 6-0 at this stage no one could have said it flattered us, but it remained 3-0 and in truth it all died down for the rest of the half with Southampton having more than their fair share of possession without ever looking as though they might trouble us.
And things could have been worse for Southampton who could so easily have had a player sent off after a punch on Wade Elliott left him requiring treatment, a change of shorts and then a change of shirt. Referee Phil Dowd, who had a good game in my view, relied on his assistant for an appraisal of that incident and let's face it the assistants don't tend to get a lot right in games. We got nothing other than a free kick.
It was all relaxed at half time and the man on the PA even managed to pronounce Graham Lancashire's name correctly after his problems with John Connelly and Willie Irvine in the previous two home games.
Southampton came back out, either fired up for the second half or just getting away from the manager, and we had to wait quite a few minutes before Burnley emerged for the second half. We just needed to step it up again, and if we could get an early goal that would set us up for an enjoyable second half.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be. Southampton were fired up and came right at us at the start of the second half. We looked jittery and it was no surprise when we conceded an early goal. It was a right comedy of errors to be honest once Brian Jensen had opted to let the ball roll out for a goal kick and then change his mind at the last minute. He got a touch on it and it squirmed through him and out for a corner.
We never really got it clear, and some of the defending left a lot to be desired. The ball finally fell to Rudi Skacel who hammered it in to the unguarded net from the edge of the box.
At that point there was no massive cause for concern but there was with an hour gone when they got a second through Andrew Surman who had been played in on the left hand side. Suddenly, as difficult as it was to believe, we were in a game that should have been put to bed after that three goal burst.
I think most of us feared the worst at that point, but we finally stemmed the tide and should have extended our lead more than once. Eagles had a chance but the goalkeeper saved, and he also saved from substitute Steven Thompson.
But that was much more a bad miss from the striker. Paterson had gone clear down the right and pulled back the perfect ball for Thommo. Just a few yards out though he hit his shot straight at Davis when he had the goal at this mercy.
Thompson was involved in another incident that earned him a yellow card. Again Dowd had to rely on a much better positioned assistant. I didn't have much of a view of this but some with a better vantage point than myself have suggested he was lucky the card was yellow.
As we went into the final period of the game Southampton weren't threatening quite so much but with only one goal between the sides there's always the worry that they might equalise. Thankfully they didn't, and when Dowd blew that final whistle after three minutes and more of stoppage time we'd won a game that we thought we'd won at just after ten past three.
When you score three at home and win the game then there can be no real complaints. Perhaps we got the goals too early, but there's no doubt we switched off for long periods of this game and could have paid a heavy price.
We didn't, we're still fourth in the table, and that's ten points from four games since the defeat at Barnsley. Now I don't think you'll find too many Burnley fans who are anything but happy with that return. Maybe the answer is not to go 3-0 up so quickly.
There were some good, and some indifferent, individual performances, but for me Martin Paterson stood out as our best player. Maybe he should have done better with the second of his shots that hit the woodwork, but other than that he had an outstanding game. He leaves me breathless just watching him and the amount of running he gets through in a game.
We'll need that over the looming Christmas period when we'll need another good return of points before hitting the cup trail in London early in the New Year.
Well done Burnley, the performance might have been better but the result was just fine in the end. And my half term report is as good as any since 2001. Now let's not collapse like that team did.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Chris McCann, Chris Eagles (Alan Mahon 90), Robbie Blake (Steven Thompson 64), Martin Paterson (Ade Akinbiyi 90). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Alex MacDonald.
Yellow cards: Clarke Carlisle, Steven Thompson.
Southampton: Kelvin Davis, Lloyd James (Jordan Robertson 84), Jack Cork, Chris Perry, Rudi Skacel, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Morgan Schneiderlin (Alex Pearce 36), Adam Lallana, Andrew Surman, Jason Euell, David McGoldrick. Subs not used: Tommy Forecast, Romain Gasmi, Paul Wotton.
Yellow cards: Lloyd James, Alex Pearce, Rudi Skacel.
Referee: Phil Dowd (Stoke-on-Trent).
Attendance: 11,229.