The points were deserved, no doubt about that, but the overall performance fell short of that of the previous two games when we came off the pitch with just the one point.
It wasn't a classic and we scored from two somewhat scrappy goals. Charlie Austin opened the scoring in the first half, although I wonder whether Burnley Football Club will again ask the League to consider a change of scorer.
That was in the first half, and after the break we got one of those rare Turf Moor moments, a Michael Duff goal, only the sixth time he's scored a league goal for Burnley in what was his 249th league appearance for us.
It was more than enough against Derby who must rank as one of the weariest teams in the league. One effort apart I can't recall them troubling us too much as we made it eight games unbeaten against them since their ill fated attempt at Premier League football in the 2007/08 season.
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| Charlie Austin, the first since Andy Payton to score 20 league goals |
As the wet Christmas none of us dreamed of continued, Sean Dyche made one change to the team that had played so well at Birmingham in the 2-2 draw, recalling fit again Danny Lafferty at left back in place of Joseph Mills who took Kevin Long's place on the bench.
There was one other change amongst the substitutes too. Brian Stock, another returning from injury, took the place of Junior Stanislas who himself was feeling a tightened hamstring and wasn't risked.
How would Derby play it? In the past two seasons they'd brought a fleet of buses to park. It backfired on them in 2010/11 when Tyrone Mears and Jack Cork scored late goals in front of the television cameras to recover a 1-0 deficit that Derby had never gone looking for.
Last season they succeeded in going home with a 0-0 draw on an afternoon when the main feature of their performance was the amount of time wasting they employed, most of which they got away with.
There was nothing to suggest it would be any different from a team still under the charges of Nigel Clough. Last year he'd said his main intention was to get a clean sheet, and he got it. It didn't take too long to realise that it was once more his target.
Hoping for a first half something like those recently against Blackburn and Birmingham, it all did seem to start really brightly and we had an early chance when Danny Ings played in Martin Paterson on the right hand side of the box.
Pato's not having the best of fortune in front of goal recently. He hit the post at Forest, had three opportunities at Birmingham and again he was unable to convert as goalkeeper Adam Legzdins got enough on it to keep it out.
We continued pushing at the Derby goal for a short time but never really created much else as they pulled more and more men back behind the ball and played their trump card of time wasting and kicking the ball away at every opportunity.
Craig Bryson was the real culprit. For what it's worth I didn't think referee Andy Haines had too bad a game but I can't believe some action wasn't taken against Bryson who came up with this stunt, and he wasn't the only one, time and time again.
Derby were trying to stifle the game and they succeeded. We ran out of ideas with the one bright feature being some of the crossing from Lafferty who did at least create some moments in their box.
In games like this you need a flash of inspiration or, when that doesn't come, a massive slice of good fortune. We got the latter.
A Kieran Trippier cross was cleared back out to him on the right hand side. This time his attempted cross was poor. It deflected off a Derby defender to reach Austin. The striker got in a quick shot but it was going nowhere near goal until that took a deflection off John Brayford and found its way into the bottom corner.
It was as clear and own goal as you are going to get but the Press Association, who incredibly had the own goal decision overturned in the Peterborough game to give Austin a hat trick, this time stuck with Charlie and awarded him his 20th league goal of the season.
And that goal means he becomes the first Burnley player to reach 20 league goals in a season since Andy Payton in the promotion season of 1999/2000 and the first at this level or higher since Willie Irvine netted 29 in 1965/66.
It was just what we needed and surely, a half time lead and the first time we'd been in front in a home game since we beat Leeds 1-0.
Derby had to come out of their shell in the second half. They would have to get someone up to support the hardly inspirational Connor Sammon (did he really cost as much as we paid for Charlie?).
They did, and to be fair, they probably, on the day, looked more comfortable than we did on the ball. Having said that, we had two big moments when we could have taken the game away from them.
Ross Wallace had the first early in the half. He broke clear but it was never going to be easy and he was forced into a hurried shot that went wide.
Then Ings went on a long run but having got into the box he took the wrong option and lost the ball. I like Ings and I think he's going to be a very good player for us. But sometimes he doesn't spot the opportunities around him. Having said that, he's a young inexperienced player and I'm sure that will improve. There is some real potential there.
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| A first goal for Michael Duff since April 2011 |
It was all getting a bit frustrating. Derby, whilst not really threatening, were getting too much of the ball and I suspected we might have a lot of defending to do if we were to see this one out. The Prophet of Doom beside me suggested we'd need another goal, that we wouldn't win this one 1-0.
That was just after Derby had forced Lee Grant into his one real save of the afternoon and then hit the post from the rebound. Michael Jacobs forced our former Derby goalkeeper into a very good save to his left and former Preston player Paul Coutts, from a tight angle, crashed the rebound against the foot of the post.
In truth, that was just about it from Derby. There were a flurry of substitutions as Dyche introduced Keith Treacy, Sam Vokes and Stock with both Nathan Tyson and Theo Robinson coming on for the visitors.
Then came that rare moment. The last time Duff scored for Burnley was in the 3-1 win against Middlesbrough in April 2011. There has been a lot of water and there have been a lot of appearances since then.
A corner on the left was hit to the far post by Wallace where Duff climbed to head goalwards. It was on target, no doubt about that, but for good measure it was helped into the net by Derby defender Gareth Roberts.
There was just over a quarter of an hour remaining. It was over; the points were won. There was never any danger of Derby coming back from this and they never threatened. Had there been another goal, and we had one or two opportunities, it would definitely have come our way.
There was even the irony of Grant getting a yellow card for time wasting. It's not the first time I've seen a goalkeeper get a yellow card for such an offence in a recent game between these two sides.
The win has seen us move up a place to 13th and that's what it's all about. It's a league where you are positioned based on the number of points you win. It may not have been the most free flowing of games, the performance might not have come close to that at Birmingham four days earlier but we got the all important three points.
It's Leicester now to bring down the curtain on 2012. They, like Derby, have a manager who could easily put a glass eye to sleep. But they are a better side than Derby and they'll show more adventure.
And as the Prophet of Doom said - we'll need two to win because David Nugent will be playing.
The teams were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Danny Lafferty, Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Ross Wallace, Danny Ings (Brian Stock 72), Martin Paterson (Keith Treacy 62), Charlie Austin (Sam Vokes 68). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Joseph Mills, Marvin Bartley.
Yellow Cards: Ross Wallace, Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Lee Grant.
Derby: Adam Legzdins, John Brayford, Richard Keogh, Mark O'Brien (James O'Connor 83), Gareth Roberts, Paul Coutts, Jeff Hendrick, Will Hughes, Craig Bryson (Nathan Tyson 65), Michael Jacobs, Connor Sammon (Theo Robinson 72). Subs not used: Frank Fielding, Conor Doyle, Kieron Freeman, Ben Davies.
Yellow Card: Theo Robinson.
Referee: Andy Haines (Sunderland).
Attendance: 13,779.