|
Since then, the only wins 24 hours on from Christmas Day have come against Rochdale (1987), Carlisle (1989), Wolves (2002) and Stoke (2005) with Ade Akinbiyi scoring our last winning goal on the day.
But hopes were high this time. We're fourth in the table and up against a team considerably lower in the table. And a team we'd lost to in controversial circumstances in the away match just a month earlier. The only down side was our inability to get three successive league wins. Six times we've won two this season but failed to win the third, surely this was going to be the time we did it.
Harry Potts Way was considerably busier than usual and with fifteen minutes to go to kick off the ticket office queues were so long it looked as though some of those towards the back of the queue would still be there when the half time whistle blew.
We were on Harry Potts Way when we learned the team, and I have to say I was somewhat puzzled as to just how we would line up with Wade Elliott coming in for Joey Gudjonsson. It seemed a strange one designed to accommodate Wade as well as Robbie Blake and Chris Eagles.
The home fans were warming up nicely for a big day as the teams prepared to come out. Our supposed singing area was in full voice to the strains of Owen Coyle's Claret & Blue Army, so yet again they turned up the volume on the music to drown them out.
The mood changed just before kick off as the crowd stood as one to remember Ray Deakin who had passed away so sadly on Christmas Eve at the age of 49. There were cries of Whooooosh as the supporters in all four stands stood to applaud the former captain for a full minute.
We were all ready but right from the start we looked lethargic. I had a major concern when Barnsley won a corner in the opening minutes, I simply couldn't see our goalkeeper. Had he not come on? Were we playing with ten? Incredibly there he was wearing kit that was almost identical to the Barnsley away kit. How on earth had referee Scott Mathieson allowed it?
The early game lethargy cost us as Barnsley grabbed the early initiative, and they made it count with an opening goal in only the sixth minute from loan striker Jamie Cureton, his first goal of the season.
There were suggestions of offside and it did look as thought goalkeeper Brian Jensen could have done much better with it as went down to his right. But we were 1-0 down, and that's the eleventh time this season we've found ourselves on the wrong end of that scoreline in a league game. We have a habit of coming back too from that particular scoreline.
Shortly afterwards, for the second time in the game, we had two balls on the pitch. This time it was Owen Coyle who headed the ball on and the referee didn't take kindly to it. He immediately signalled he wanted an end to the multi-ball system and it was a decision that would allow Barnsley to waste time for the rest of the game.
The goal certainly hadn't lifted us, and for much of the first half we looked a disjointed team, the formation and personnel didn't look right, and Barnsley were having no difficulty at all in dealing with us.
Elliott was involved in the two incidents that could have led to an equaliser. He made a right mess of one of them when, with options available, he opted for a left foot shot that got nowhere. A few minutes before that there did look a clear case for a penalty as he was upended in the box.
I was beginning to think that getting in at half time with the score at 0-1 might not be a bad thing. We could get things sorted and come out the second half a better side. We really hadn't looked as though we might get back into the game and then, with seven minutes of the half remaining, we did grab an equaliser.
Blake got down the right hand side and beat the defender. It looked as though he would pull the ball back for two waiting Clarets, but he spotted Chris McCann coming in at the far post and played the ball across for him. The young Irishman made no mistake, hitting his shot low into the corner across the goalkeeper.
Relief, we were level, and by half time we really should have been in front. The goal transformed us. Chris Eagles fired in a shot that was saved by the keeper and McCann almost got another but saw his effort blocked.
But with three minutes of the half remaining Barnsley will still be wondering how they didn't go behind. Martin Paterson, starved of service for much of the afternoon, got away on the left hand side. He got the ball across goal for Eagles to tap the ball home for his sixth goal of the season.
I'm not sure anyone in Turf Moor could believe it when it went wide. Think Ade Akinbiyi against Watford last season. Just like then the goalkeeper was beaten and out of it, just like then it was an empty goal to shoot out, but Eagles was just a few yards out and somehow got it wide of the post.
The game had turned round though, and when Mathieson blew the half time whistle it was Barnsley who were in need of the fifteen minute break.
Half time was quite bizarre. The sound system had a gremlin and the half time draw was done in silence. What a pity they got it working again for the cheerleaders and pie & chips. But he highlight had to be the new style lottery on the big screen.
My initial thought was that it was the half time scores, but as many of them bore no resemblance to the actual scores at the various grounds I assumed it had to be some sort of prediction competition.
I was optimistic when we came out for the second half. We'd got back into the game both in terms of the scoreline and the play. We were now the better side against, it has to be said, a not particularly good Barnsley side.
Unfortunately were never able to get things going again and I don't recall us causing the visiting goalkeeper Heinz Muller too many problems. Not as though they caused us too many either.
It was a disappointing half when a Robbie Blake half volley that went well wide was about the best we could muster. But at the other end fate was to deal a cruel hand. Jamal Campbell-Ryce, probably their best player, got a cross in from the right hand side which hit Steven Caldwell and deflected into the goal.
It came just a minute after Robbie had been replaced by Steven Thompson, but the former Cardiff striker couldn't inspire us as he'd done last week at Bristol City. At no point did I ever see an equaliser on the cards and the whole thing was summed up with the late free kick that was hit high and wide into the cricket field stand.
Referee Mathieson, I believe, brought it to an end. But at no point did he appear to blow a full time whistle, my realisation that it had finished came when he started shaking hands with the Barnsley players.
I'm not so sure Barnsley deserved to take all three points, they really weren't very good at all. But this was an off day for Burnley. Such as Elliott, Eagles and Carlisle were a long way short of what they can give us but there were others who just weren't anywhere near as effective as they can be.
But it is a defeat, not a disaster. The league table still shows us in fourth place and I think each and everyone of us would have been more than happy with that at this stage when we were looking forward last August.
We need to turn it round tomorrow at Doncaster, but it would be good if we could extend our winning run beyond two games.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Clarke Carlisle (Kevin McDonald 78), Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott, Graham Alexander, Chris McCann, Chris Eagles, Robbie Blake (Steven Thompson 65), Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Joey Gudjonsson, Alan Mahon.
Yellow cards: Stephen Jordan.
Barnsley: Heinz Muller, Marciano van Homoet, Stephen Foster, Darren Moore, Rob Kozluk, Bobby Hassell, Anderson Da Silva, Diego Leon (Hugo Colace 58), Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Jonathan Macken (Marceo Rigters 72), Jamie Cureton (Kayode Odejayi 82). Subs not used: Dennis Souza, Mounir El Hamour.
Yellow cards: Darren Moore.
Referee: Scott Mathieson (Stockport).
Attendance: 16,580.