A sweet victory for little old Burnley

Last updated : 22 September 2010 By Andy Dean
Chris Eagles
Chris Eagles - approaching his best form in a Burnley shirt
Wade Elliott's goal just before half time was enough to add the name of Bolton Wanderers to the list of Premier League clubs to exit cup competitions at Turf Moor in recent years, but this was about so much more than a place in round four of the Carling Cup.

The Owen Coyle saga has gone on for over nine months now, and everything that has needed to be said has been said. Tonight was a night when the Scot would have loved to have been in the home dugout - the tenacious little underdog 'standing toe-to-toe' (copyright O.C Coyle) with the 'bigger' club and coming out on top - well Owen, how's the view from the other side of the fence?

Knowing a cup upset was a genuine possibility Brian Laws named a strong-looking side. Jay Rodriguez was rewarded for several fine performances from the bench with a place in the starting eleven, while Graham Alexander and Lee Grant were the other changes to the side that drew with Palace on Saturday.

Not surprisingly the Bolton boss arrived onto the pitch like a pantomime villain entering the stage for the first time. A boo met his every step as he strode from the tunnel to his place in the dugout.

It's fair to say that the Clarets have made slow starts to all their home league games this season, thankfully last night was different.

They say luck evens itself out over the course of the season, if that is indeed the case the Chris Eagles is due some huge slices of fortune in the coming months. Fresh from crashing the ball against the Palace bar on Saturday he had the frame of the goal rattling within the opening five minutes.

Cutting in from the right wing his effort had Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan beaten all ends up, unluckily for Eagles history repeated itself with the ball cannoning back of the bar.

All the Clarets' early pressure was coming down the right hand side, Eagles replicating the form that has seen him became utterly undroppable at the moment, an early cross narrowly missing everybody before flashing past the far post.

It took the Premier League side 15 minutes to test Lee Grant, the ex-Sheff Wed stopper reacting well to get down low to his right to keep out Tamir Cohen's drilled effort.

The visitors' second chance of the evening fell to a certain Robbie Blake. He said in the build-up to the game that he didn't want to score against us, his free kick from 25 yards went so wide that it seemed he was trying a little too hard not to score.

Wade Elliott was then lucky to avoid punishment, and serious punishment at that, for a foul on Matt Taylor. Both he and Taylor thought they could win the ball as it bounced loose, but how his throat-high challenge wasn't worthy of a yellow card is beyond me.

Even those not wearing Claret and Blue tinted glasses would have admitted that the opening half belonged to the home side, and with just five minutes left in the half the crossbar was again rattling.

As Eagles had been at Selhurst Park, Jay Rodriguez was left cursing his luck after not scoring on Saturday. A combination of the outstanding Julian Speroni and the bar had thwarted the young striker at Palace and he was again denied a stunning goal by the woodwork.

30 yards from goal and with seemingly nothing on Rodriguez tried his luck, with very little back lift he fired an effort at goal, the ball seemed to be arrowing into the top corner, only to smack back of the angle of bar and post and away to safety.

Then came the match-winning moment. Eagles was again instrumental, exchanging passes with Tyrone Mears and bursting down the right flank. His cross was perfect for Chris Iwelumo to nod home, only for the striker to get his jump all wrong and seemingly handle the ball.

As Wade Elliott forced the ball over the line nobody inside Turf Moor seemed sure what exactly was happening. The linesman on the Bob Lord side of the pitch flagged to indicate a goal, referee Mark Clattenburg seemed to have awarded a penalty against Zat Knight while the Bolton players were appealing for handball against Iwelumo.

After a brief consultation with his assistant Clattenburg gave the goal, much to the relief of the 16,000 or so home fans - how long had we waited for this goal - Burnley 1-0 Owen Coyle's Bolton.

As Coyle left the pitch to jeers of "Judas, what's the score?" at half-time he must have been furious. On a night when he would have loved to have rolled into town with his new troops and scored an easy win he was being let down, Blake, Klasnic, Taylor, Moreno and Davies were all anonymous in a first half where the visitors had mustered just one serious attempt on goal.

Anyone expecting the 'bigger' club to come out a different beast in the second half were to be disappointed. Ivan Klasnic stung the palms of Grant just before the hour and then Cohen wasted Wanderers' best chance of the game.

Exploiting space down the right, the Israeli sold Clarke Carlisle a clever dummy and found himself with just the keeper to beat, but his shot could only brush the outside of the net - the closest the visitors got all evening.

Rodriguez should then have had the goal that has been eluding him for almost a week now. Slipped through by a delicious reverse pass from Eagles he should really have scored, managing only to fire the ball past Bogdan and past the post.

A pair of Taylor free kicks called Grant into action in the closing minutes but it really was a poor ending from a Bolton point of view. They never laid siege to our goal, they never looked threatening for long spells and they never forced a string of saves from Grant.

After comfortably seeing out the three added minutes that was it, we had the victory we've waited nine months for.

It was a terrific team performance with several outstanding contributions. Eagles is approaching his best form in a Burnley shirt, he may very well be playing for a move in January but if you offer me this Chris Eagles for another three months and then a few millions pounds I'll take the deal now.

With the clock ticking past the ninety minute mark Jack Cork was still tearing round like a dog after the ball. The on-loan Chelsea man is a touch of class, people of a certain age say this football club never replaced John Deary - they might not be saying that for much longer. Cork's performance was a mix of energy, ability and determination, it was a Premier League performance.

Andre Bikey has rightly won rave reviews for his performances recently, but last night it was Clarke Carlisle's time to shine. After barely missing a header or a tackle all evening the former QPR man can consider himself unfortunate to have saved his best performance of the season for a night when the almost unplayable Eagles rightly took the Man Of The Match award.

As for the Owen Coyle saga, last night was a watershed for me. In the hours leading up to the game my status on a popular social networking site reflected my hatred for the man I once idolised. This victory goes a long way to healing the wounds he inflicted upon this football club and its fans.

The Scot had the chance to eclipse anyone in this club's history, and I include McIlroy, Potts, Miller and Adamson in that remark. It wasn't enough for him though, he simply doesn't care about this club anywhere near as much as I truly believed he did, despite what he may tell the media, and for that exact reason I will no longer mourn the loss of Owen Coyle from my club.

You may well think you've gone on to bigger and better things Owen, after tonight you will indeed still be a Premier League manager while we are a Championship club, but I bet coming back here and losing really hurts you, and I for one think you deserve it.