I'd be seeing stars from Stan's prison cell

Last updated : 20 October 2010 By Tony Scholes
Brian Easton
Brian Easton had a very good debut
It's been goals galore recently at Turf Moor and we've taken that goals total to 22 in our last seven home games, including the 4-2 Premier League finale against Spurs, whilst winning six of those games and drawing the other 0-0 against Bristol City on the day the woefully out of form David James decided to have a good game.

We'd dropped to eighth in the table after Saturday's draw prompting more calls for manager Brian Laws to be sacked and yet had that 94th minute equaliser not gone in we would have been in fourth place.

That's where we are now after this win and, although the top two are still not within immediate catching distance, it is a more than acceptable start to the season with around a quarter of it gone.

We're doing it the hard way too right now with having to make enforced changes in the defence. At Millwall we had to bring on both Michael Duff and Leon Cort within the first quarter of an hour following Clarke Carlisle's unfortunate red card and Andre Bikey's injury.

At Bramall Lane we were without Carlisle and the injured Duff with matters made worse in the second half when Danny Fox was forced off. Fox was close to being fit last night but when he failed his fitness test there were options. David Edgar could have played there after ending Saturday's game in the left-back position and Graham Alexander has played at left-back previously for both Burnley and Scotland.

Laws , however, opted to give Brian Easton his league debut. Easton's only previous first team action for Burnley has been in the Carling Cup wins at Hartlepool and Morecambe in the last two seasons. He came into a team that was otherwise unchanged from the one that had played on Saturday with the fit again Duff replacing Richard Eckersley on the bench.

What a start we made with most of it coming from Chris Eagles who lined up initially on the right hand side. His early cross was almost met by Jay Rodriguez against the club he spent a month with on loan last season and it was one of four good balls Burnley got into the Barnsley box in the opening five minutes or so.

A goal then might just have brought with it an avalanche, but as Barnsley survived that early onslaught so they got themselves into the game and for ten minutes or so we seemed to lose our way.

We were thankful too to Leon Cort, playing at Turf Moor for the first time since the home defeat against Liverpool last season. He got in the perfect tackle to prevent Barnsley's Goran Lovre from getting in a shot.

Barnsley, who to their credit came to play football, caused us problems at times in the first half and twice Brian Jensen had to punch away, and on a couple of occasions they should perhaps have tested him more.

But we were still the better of the two teams and with Dean Marney driving us forward from midfield we were a constant threat, particularly with the quality of the ball coming in from the wide areas.

Eagles, and Tyrone Mears, down the right were causing Barnsley numerous problems and, in one sortie down the left, Wade Elliott caused panic in their box with a superb cross. Somehow they kept them out. Jay Rod had a shout for a penalty, goalkeeper Luke Steele twice saved well from Marney but he was a very fortunate goalkeeper more than once with some rather dubious handling, surely not inspired by the watching Chris Pearce.

It was all still level at 0-0 at half time. We'd played well enough and I'm sure had we been able to get a goal then everything would have seemed well with the world. It hadn't come and that in itself was increasing the pressure which in turn led to a nervous home crowd.

The answer was an early goal in the second half and it came, but it could so easily have come at the wrong end. The half began with us winning a free kick on the left that Eagles made a real mess of and then Barnsley got down their right where Kieran Trippier got the better of Easton only to fire his shot past the Beast and wide of the far post.

Trippier really should have scored and that would have given us a difficult second half. It would have been so unfair though on Big Sheena. Yes, he was at fault, but it was a stand out because he didn't make that many mistakes on what overall was a very good debut.

We didn't have long to think about it. Chris Iwelumo knocked the ball down on the right hand side of the box and it was picked up by Elliott. He turned well and laid the ball off for Eagles and from just outside the box the in form winger made no mistake with a brilliant shot right into the corner.

If Barnsley thought they were going to get anything out of this game then their chance had gone. We weren't going to let them back in and with the lead we were soon playing as well as at any time this season.

Every time we've won this season it's included a goal from Iwelumo and he nearly added our second only to see Steele somehow get a touch on it. It was enough to take it onto the underside of the bar and out.

It just needed a second (but didn't we say that on Saturday?) and it duly came in such similar circumstances as three days earlier. Up we went for a penalty only for the referee to apparently turn us down until the assistant waved his flag before placing it across his chest.

Referee Haines immediately pointed to the spot and Eagles immediately took up his position. Goalkeeper Steele went walkabout in order to delay things as long as possible but the end product was still the same, he had to retrieve the ball from the back of his net as Eagles hammered it home in the corner to his right.

Game over surely (but didn't we say that on Saturday?). This time it was. We didn't let them back into the game and we continued to cause them all sorts of problems whilst our only worry was seeing Eagles go down with cramp. He was immediately replaced with Ross Wallace coming on.

Barnsley did force on save from Jensen from a free kick, but you sensed there was at least one more goal in us. Jay Rod got a shot against the post from the tightest of angles before Iwelumo got his goal. Marney was the one to get the ball to him and his first time shot flew into the corner.

That clinched it, and saw us hit three or more for the fourth time this season at home and when did we last do that?

In the end this was another outstanding performance as we eventually just swept Barnsley away. They, like Hull recently, simply had no answer to us. We're playing some very good football in a very pleasing style and I'm convinced there is much, much more to come.

Some fans will say we are just one poor home result from being an ordinary side and others will point to us being a side who are just one away win from being real challengers. It all depends, I suppose, on whether your glass is half empty or half full.

Mine's three quarters and if I was in Stan Ternent's prison cell right now, I'd been seeing stars.

The teams last night were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Leon Cort, Andre Bikey, Brian Easton, Jack Cork, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney (Graham Alexander 89), Chris Eagles (Ross Wallace 79), Chris Iwelumo (Martin Paterson 84), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Steven Thompson.
Yellow Card: Tyrone Mears.

Barnsley: Luke Steele, Bobby Hassell (Jim O'Brien 69), Stephen Foster, Jason Shackell, Jay McEveley (Luke Potter 61), Kieran Trippier, Hugo Colace, Nathan Doyle, Adam Hammill, Goran Lovre (Chris Wood 74), Andy Gray. Subs not used: David Preece, Diego Arismendi, Jacob Butterfield, Liam Dickinson.

Referee: Andy Haines (Sunderland).

Attendance: 14,428.