Don’t get me wrong, I’m not getting desperate to see it happen, it’s not situation critical but I’d prefer the elusive win came along soon (preferably at Turf Moor please as I refuse to take the Ewood prison convoy to the away leg). Earlier in the week, I read another fan’s view that they would rather beat Rovers and come bottom than lose to them twice and come top. I’m quite the opposite, hopefully a very long way from that stage, yet the longer it goes on, the more irritating it is.
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| We'll never know whether Danny Ings would have scored but the free kick was hardly consolation |
The thing is, I’m not from Burnley. I have no connection whatsoever to the town itself so, whilst I can appreciate it, I don’t have the tribal hatred (which is perhaps too strong a word for most) for our rivals from 13 miles away, as the chicken flies. I’m not bothered about the local bragging rights as I hardly encounter Blackburn fans. I’m not even sure they venture south of Darwen. I’ve supported Burnley since the late 80s so I’ve grown up with Preston and Blackpool as our rivals, seeing as we played them nearly every year. And if I ever really wanted us to beat anyone when I was younger, it was Bury, whom my pals from school supported. At that time it seemingly was no, nay, never no more will we play Bastard Rovers.
That all changed in December 2000. Having gone up whilst they’d come down, we met at 4pm on a Sunday, something which will pretty much never happen again. That’s a real shame because it remains the most intense cauldron of tribal passion I’ve ever witnessed in a football ground or anywhere else. One end of the ground cheering our players as they jogged back and forth across the pitch during the warm ups, whilst the other end incessantly jeered the Rovers squad. It remains one of my favourite games ever, despite the result, a lasting memory of a fixture that has subsequently had every possible attempt made to draw from it everything that made it special. Sunday morning kick off times, ridiculously over the top policing, big brother travel arrangements, etc. It all makes it easier to not bother attending, certainly in the case of the away match.
And then there’s been the matches themselves. The first few meetings of the modern era were one-sided to say the least, the kind of games you want to erase from memory as quickly as possible, not just because we tended to get beat but because the matches were dire. Yet more recently, we’ve hit a more even keel. With the Venky’s clan going out of their way to curry favour with Burnley fans by being everything to the opposite of what good football club owners are, the former Premier League champions are back in their rightful place in the Football League. It’s all been very funny to watch, but there’s still one small niggling thing. We still haven’t beaten them. And the real source of the irritation is that we’ve deserved to. We’ve been unlucky. We’ve been cheated.
We’ll discount the game in the Premier League under Brian Laws, as it was the most soulless, lacklustre performance from any side in a derby ever but that was when the injustice began with Martin Olsson’s blatant dive to win the decisive penalty. The last three games though, have been crackers. The injustice of last season’s stoppage time equaliser from David Dunn couldn’t happen this time around as Dunn, consistently their key player against us, wasn’t playing. Instead it was left to Lee Williamson, an absolute nobody of a player, brought on to kill a bit of time, to provide the last minute controversy by hauling down Danny Ings as he sprinted clear on goal. We’ll never know whether Ings would have scored – there’s nothing to say he wouldn’t, such is the form that he’s in – but a free kick 40 yards from goal was hardly fair compensation. Damn those professionals and their professionalism.
In truth, that incident shouldn’t have mattered but for some Keystone Cops defending a few minutes earlier. The precision of Scott Arfield’s through ball to Jordan Rhodes was matched by the power of Michael Duff’s Row Z-bound clearance into the same player’s shin and fortune favoured the blond as the ball arced up over Tom Heaton and those in the Cricket Field Stable went wild. Such slices of fortune were the only way Rovers were going to get anything from the game following the goal of the season so far from Junior Stanislas. A superb passing move culminated in a one-two with Ings and a rifled left foot shot that zipped into the bottom corner. The pre-match Heroes video was hastily being edited, a blue plaque was being carved to mark Stanislas’ South-East London birthplace, a generation of Burnley babies were about to be named Junior… but then we inexplicably self-destructed.
Another cruel blow but, in truth, it was probably a fair result overall. We deserved to win but Rovers didn’t necessarily deserve to lose. The tide may not have turned quite yet and although we’ve not beaten them for eleven games, they haven’t beaten us in three. With both teams currently more evenly matched than they have been in many years, this could be a period of strong derby games between us and that’s an exciting prospect. The last few have been really enjoyable and we might not have won yet but it is definitely coming. We’ll just go and do it at their place.