For about seven minutes it looked as though we might finally have got this particular monkey off our back after a Junior Stanislas goal that will certainly rank high next May when we're looking for the goal of the season.
But it was all undone after a poor back pass from the otherwise excellent Scott Arfield that led to Michael Duff's clearance rebounding off Jordan Rhodes and into the net. Even then we might just have snatched it had Lee Williamson not brought down Danny Ings and got himself sent off to break Ade Akinbiyi's record; Williamson had been on the pitch for only a minute and three quarters.
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| Junior Stanislas was within minutes of a place in Burnley folklore |
When that equaliser went in I was gutted, absolutely gutted. But there's nothing I, or anyone else, can do about it now. We've all got to look for the positives and there were, let's face it, plenty of them including the firm knowledge that we are now, without any doubt, a better side than our local rivals.
It was another day of over the top policing as the away fans arrived in buses that looked not much better than the shambolic hardly roadworthy fleet that we got lumbered with last March, and just as the last lot landed we were getting the team news and it was a surprise to me.
I'd expected new signing Michael Kightly to be on the bench with the same starting eleven that had played so well in winning 3-0 at Derby a couple of weeks ago, but Kightly went straight in with Keith Treacy the unfortunate player to miss out against his former club.
He dropped to the bench with young striker Ryan Noble missing out altogether leaving us without a forward amongst our seven substitutes.
Kightly, by the way, became the third player in post-war football to make a league bow for the Clarets in this fixture. Back in 1963 Mick Buxton came in at left back for Alex Elder in a 1-0 win and back on Boxing Day 1982 Brian Miller gave a debut to new loan signing Mike Walsh from Everton.
Kightly lined up on the left with Arfield on the right in the formation that we've come to expect this season. The visiting manager had said his team were going to be on the front foot from the start but they were soon looking for their back feet as Burnley took control at the start of the game.
Sometimes you need a bit of good luck. They got it today but we didn't in the opening minutes when goalkeeper Jake (not Agent) Kean tried to clear the ball but hit it onto Sam Vokes. It cannoned off the in form Burnley striker but, to Kean's relief, rebounded just wide of goal.
It really was all Burnley. Jason Lowe all but put through his own goal as he tried to deal with a superb low cross from Kieran Trippier and was thankful to see it just clear the bar and hit the roof of the netting.
Kean was soon in action again. He failed to hold a Scott Arfield shot from distance. He parried it as far as Danny Ings but this time the goalkeeper did well to save from our leading goalscorer.
Virtually nothing had been seen of Blackburn at this point and they could certainly count themselves very fortunate to still be level. The goal just wouldn't come but the next time a shot went in on target it was from a very rare attack at the far end with Tom Heaton making a top class save down to his left to deny Tom Cairney.
The first half was Burnley's. There was absolutely no doubt about that. We'd been head and shoulders better than them but just couldn't find that breakthrough.
I was worried that things might not be just quite as good after the interval and unfortunately that proved to be the case as Blackburn adopted a much more direct style of play. For a while we struggled a bit and that allowed them to put some pressure on our defence.
They won a succession of corners, including a run of five that came one after the other. They certainly put us under some pressure at times from them but we defended them brilliantly with Jason Shackell leading by example at the back.
It probably needed a change from us and I was keen for Treacy to be thrown in. However, when Dyche did opt to change things it was Stanislas who replaced Kightly with not much more than twenty minutes remaining.
Less than eight minutes later Stanislas put himself in place to go down in Burnley folklore and would have done had we been able to hold onto the lead that he gave us.
I could say he scored with a 25-yard shot but it simply would not do it justice. Shackell and Dean Marney combined to get the ball out onto the right touchline to Trippier.
The right back moved inside before finding David Jones who in turn moved it forward to Stanislas. He twice played a one-two, the first time with Trippier and then with Ings as he looked for space and he found it.
When Ings played it back he hit a first time left foot shot that arrowed into the bottom left hand corner of the net. We've scored some superb goals this season. This one is right up there with the best of them.
There was a delay in restarting while some idiot was removed from the pitch but for the next few minutes Blackburn looked a beaten team. They looked like a beaten team and only the slow moving clock seemed to be in our way.
Then disaster struck. Arfield really had played well but from the right back position he got his back pass very badly wrong. Rhodes was onto it quickly. He turned inside Shackell but Duff did well to get back and got there first. He was putting the ball out for a corner but it got a touch off Rhodes and looped over Heaton and into the far corner.
Two Burnley players at least slumped to the ground and I feared the worst but thankfully they didn't really offer anything much after that other than winning some more corners.
Would there be any more drama to come? There was and it was at our end. With the ninety minutes up they replaced Corry Evans with Lee Williamson and his stay was a lot shorter than he expected it to be.
The fourth official held up the board showing five extra minutes but Williamson didn't last two of them. Trippier, in his own six yard box, hooked the ball clear following a corner. A slip let Ings get onto the ball and he then went past Williamson who pulled him down just inside the centre circle.
Even referee Pawson, who had an erratic and unpredictable afternoon, had little option. We won a free kick some fifty yards from goal but WIlliamson saw red, the first visiting player sent off at the Turf since Wilfried Zaha saw red playing for Palace in March 2012.
The free kick came to nothing. Blackburn went down and won another corner which brought a foul on Heaton and that was it.
For the third time in succession the game had ended in a 1-1 draw.
Yes, gutted yet again. That win just won't come, but we know we are better than they are now and it surely will come and soon.
We'll get over it and we will see all the positives. This Burnley team is defying the odds right now. What is surely the smallest squad in the division has now picked up 11 points from the first 6 games and played some really good football into the bargain.
I'll focus on that before Tuesday's home game against Birmingham. I'm sure the crowd won't be as big or as passionate as today's was but it would be good to get behind the team again in the same way.
As for Blackburn, we can now only look forward to March as we try once more to beat them.
The teams were;
Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly (Junior Stanislas 68), Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Keith Treacy.
Yellow Cards: Dean Marney, Michael Duff, Ben Mee.
Blackburn: Jake Kean, Todd Kane, Scott Dann, Grant Hanley, Tommy Spurr, Ben Marshall (Chris Taylor 79), Jason Lowe (Alan Judge 79), Corry Evans (Lee Williamson 90), Josh King, Tom Cairney, Jordan Rhodes. Subs not used: Simon Eastwood, Matt Kilgallon, Alex Marrow, Josh Morris.
Yellow Card: Jason Lowe.
Red Card: Lee Williamson.
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire).
Attendance: 15,699.