We can't have too many complaints about the result after an uninspiring performance in what was, frankly, an uninspiring game of football against a Middlesbrough side who are very much basing things on keeping it tight and keeping clean sheets.
This was their twelfth shut out of the season and their seventh in the last eight games. Only Hull have scored against them in that time, a game they lost 3-0 at the KC. They haven't conceded a goal at the Riverside since Brentford were beaten 3-1 in mid-September and that is one of only two occasions that their defence has been breached in home games, the other in a shock home defeat against Bristol City back in August.
That's what we were up against and to be honest we rarely looked likely to add to those two goals scored by Joe Bryan and Lasse Vibe, although by half time I thought we'd got ourselves into the game.
After a reasonable drive up the A19, including a stop at our favoured pub, we found a convenient parking spot on double yellow lines (clearly unused yellow lines) to learn that we'd made a team change and one that would bring about a different formation.
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| Dean Marney was back in the starting line up for the first time since February |
Sam Vokes dropped to the bench with Dean Marney coming in. It's a long time since we saw Marney in a starting line up and, as was pointed out, it meant his last three away league starts for the Clarets had come at Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.
Otherwise the team was unchanged but there was one more change on the bench with Conor Mitchell taking the place of Matt Gilks, who was unwell, as the substitute goalkeeper.
They were without David Nugent, always a bonus for us giving his scoring rate against us, and chose to leave Albert Adomah, who always seems to play well against us, on the bench. Was it going to be our night? The answer was no but it was never as bad as the two people sat a few seats to my left seemed to think as they abused our manager from start to finish.
The home side certainly started the better of the two although, in fairness, without troubling us too much. They were, in the main, restricted to shots from distance but that's of more concern at this ground than most others given their record of scoring worldies against us in recent years.
We did seem to be struggling to have any impact on the game at all and, for me, there were real concerns at how easy they were able to attack us down the flanks where both full backs were having games that did nothing other than offer them encouragement.
I'd say they were very much the better team for the first 25 minutes of that half but in that time there hadn't been too much for Tom Heaton to concern himself with and his best save proved unnecessary with the assistant's flag already raised for offside.
For the remaining twenty minutes we started to get the upper hand. We were enjoying much of the possession. It wasn't good enough for Statler and Waldorf, the hecklers, to my left who were demanding that we lumped it forward at every opportunity rather than keeping that possession, but we did start to get some opportunities. David Jones came close and George Boyd even closer but had the Boyd effort not been saved by Dimi Konstantopoulos then questions would have been asked by the home dug out.
One of their players was off the field and they were trying to attract the referee's attention to get him back on. For over two minutes referee Geoff Eltringham, who had an appalling ninety minutes, ignored them but eventually waved him back on when the Boyd shot was saved at the expense of a corner.
I wasn't so sure on the rules here because he'd apparently gone off to change a boot. It reads: "The player is only allowed to re-enter the field of play when the ball is out of play," so this is one the referee actually did get correct.
When the half time whistle blew at 0-0, whilst not having been a particularly good half, I was content in that we'd improved as the half went on, had probably come closest to breaking the deadlock, and had held the upper hand in the closing stages.
I'm afraid the second half didn't live up to my expectations. Even before they scored the only goal of the game nine minutes into the half, they'd reclaimed the game and once in front we rarely looked likely to get ourselves back in.
Probably the best chance we had was a Scott Arfield effort from the edge of the box that was much too close to the goalkeeper. We'd been given that opportunity after Daniel Ayala had brought down Marney as he played the ball through; he was yellow carded when play eventually went dead some time later although that yellow card hasn't been reported anywhere, not even by Middlesbrough who claim they had no players carded.
With around twenty minutes remaining we brought on Vokes for Jones and then Michael Kightly replaced Boyd. The hecklers, certainly one of them in particular, wasn't happy with that. Having demanded a change he wasn't happy with the choice.
We did get forward a few times but not with much conviction and for the last eight or nine minutes we pushed on even further when Rouwen Hennings replaced Darikwa and we went with three at the back.
But in truth, this game had been lost when Middlesbrough scored. I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone in the ground who really thought Burnley might get back into it given the way we played in that second half.
It was, I felt, our worst performance of the season, and against one of the best teams in the league it was always going to be very difficult to get anything from it.
Our good run of form has suddenly changed. Three points from the last five games have seen us lose touch with the four teams above us. For a while in fifth place we've known that no matter what we couldn't drop any further after the next game. That's changed now. We could drop two places on Saturday but no matter what our result, we can't move any further up the league, and should Hull won tonight it will leave us six points adrift of fourth with a considerably worse goal difference.
If we want to get back up to that top group then we are going to have to start turning in some better performances than of late. It's a while since we played well; that was against Fulham, our last win and that was six weeks ago.
The teams were;
Middlesbrough: Dimi Konstantopoulos, Tomas Kalas, Daniel Ayala, Ben Gibson, George Friend, Emilio Nsue, Adam Forshaw (Albert Adomah 89), Adam Clayton, Diego Fabbrini (Grant Leadbitter 65), Stewart Downing, Kike (Christian Stuani 76). Subs not used: Tomas Mejias, Fernando Amorebieta, Carlos De Pena, Bruno Zuculini.
Yellow Card: Daniel Ayala.
Burnley: Tom Heaton, Tendayi Darikwa (Rouwen Hennings 85), Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd (Michael Kightly 77), Dean Marney, Joey Barton, David Jones (Sam Vokes 71), Scott Arfield, Andre Gray. Subs not used: Conor Mitchell, Matt Lowton, Stephen Ward, Matt Taylor.
Yellow Cards: David Jones, Ben Mee.
Referee: Geoff Eltringham (Tyne & Wear).
Attendance: 19,966 (including 646 Clarets).
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