To add to the four goals there was the clean sheet we've craved for so long at Turf Moor, and by the end of the game perhaps we might feel we should have had even more goals than the four we did get.
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| Chris McCann - two goals in a superb performance |
On a cold blustery night this was just the sort of performance needed and the crowd responded apart from the poor 300 plus souls in the cricket field stand who had endured the long journey from Suffolk to watch their Ipswich team's abject performance, described by their manager Paul Jewell as looking like a pub team.
To me it looked very much like a group of players who were doing their utmost to dislodge Jewell, although he's getting full backing from Marcus Evans, the club owner, despite six successive defeats, but this report is about Burnley and no matter how Ipswich played, it can't take anything away from our performance.
We had to do it without Ross Wallace, suspended after collecting his fifth yellow card on Saturday at Hull. There were no surprises. Sam Vokes, who had replaced Junior Stanislas at half time at Hull, came in for Wallace in the only personnel change with the team reverting to a 4-4-2 formation.
Ipswich don't have a bad record at all against Burnley which made me nervous ahead of kick off. I also took a quick glance at their line up and saw some experienced names such as Jimmy Bullard, Keith Andrews, Lee Bowyer, Carlos Edwards, Ivar Ingimarsson, Michael Chopra and Mark Kennedy.
A tough game ahead I thought, and with five minutes gone my fears were all but confirmed. Ipswich snatched the initiative from the start and I don't think we managed to get the ball out of our own half during those first few minutes.
It all looked set to be one of those disappointing nights. We'd started on the back foot on a ferociously windy night at Turf Moor and then just to make things even worse the rain came swirling in.
Ipswich, thankfully, didn't create a goal scoring opportunity in those first few minutes. They might have wished they had because they were never in the game again as Burnley just took over and dominated the whole night.
The rain stopped; the wind dropped, and Burnley just took over the game and we would have been in front long before we were but for visiting goalkeeper Arran Lee-Barrett. He brilliantly denied Jay Rodriguez twice, once from a shot heading for the bottom corner and then to prevent a header. He then saved from Keith Treacy.
So much of our play in that period came via Kieran Trippier. He was linking up well down the right with Junior Stanislas, who was beginning to look a different player than in previous weeks, and his delivery into the box was outstanding, none more so than when the Jay Rod header was saved.
The crowd was our lowest since March 2009 but you wouldn't have thought so as the noise levels rose as Burnley continued to go forward. It just needed a goal and it came just a few minutes past the half hour.
Jay had another effort deflected wide for a corner on the right and when Treacy's flag kick came over it was met at the near post by Vokes who headed home his first Burnley goal.
Jewell tried to respond and introduced Jason Scotland for Daryl Murphy (did we really try to sign Scotland for the Premier League?). It didn't work and by the time the second half kicked off his team were trailing by two goals and he'd made two more changes.
That second goal came into first half stoppage time when Stanislas crossed low into the box for Chris McCann to steer it in from close range. McCann likes scoring goals against Ipswich. Ahead of the game we were discussing recent wins against them and I pointed out he'd scored in our last two wins in 2005/06 when he was joined on the scoresheet by fellow Dubliners James and Garreth O'Connor in a 3-0 win and the following season when he headed in the only goal of the game in stoppage time.
That 1-0 win, in November 2006, was our last against Ipswich, but as we went in 2-0 up at half time it looked as though we would need to have a seriously disappointing second half not to win this one.
Ipswich made their two half time substitutions. On came Josh Carson and another player we were once linked with, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
A 2-0 lead is often said to be a dangerous one in football when the next goal is so important. It was never going to go Ipswich's way as Burnley just totally dominated the second half to the point where Lee Grant could have gone home without it causing us any concern.
We thought we'd got the third goal when Stanislas crossed low again for Treacy but the defender got their just ahead of the winger. Jay, so unlucky not to get on the scoresheet in the first half, missed a couple of opportunities and we passed the hour mark with the score 2-0.
Soon after, in a two minute spell there were two more opportunities for arguably our best two players on the night, Rodriguez and McCann.
Jay Rod went on a blinding 50-yard run before hitting a shot just wide but a minute later goal number three finally came. Treacy it was who played a superb ball forward for the rampant McCann who had surged forward.
The ball didn't want to come down but the brilliant skipper, in surely his best performance since returning from injury, did so well to get it down before hammering home right footed.
That, without doubt, ensured the points were ours, and Jay finished it all off, after linking with Stanislas, with a shot into the bottom corner.
The crowd wanted more goals but Eddie Howe opted to give both Zavon Hines and Alex MacDonald a run out in the last ten minutes as both Vokes and Rodriguez, in turn, took their deserved ovations.
At around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday we were heading for the bottom three in the Championship and now, whilst everything in the garden isn't yet rosy, we are sat in 14th place albeit with only a four point cushion from those relegation places (although this will become an 11 point cushion if the Football League pull their fingers out with Portsmouth).
"We should have had eight," said one fan running down the Longside concourse at the final whistle. Yes, we could, possibly even more such was our dominance, but I'm more than happy to settle for four.
Well done Clarets - this was outstanding.
The teams were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Ben Mee, Junior Stanislas, Marvin Bartley (Dean Marney 50), Chris McCann, Keith Treacy, Sam Vokes (Zavon Hines 80), Jay Rodriguez (Alex MacDonald 82). Subs not used: Jon Stewart, Brian Easton.
Yellow Card: Keith Treacy
Ipswich: Arran Lee-Barrett, Carlos Edwards, Ivar Ingimarsson, Danny Collins, Aaron Cresswell, Lee Bowyer (Jay Emmanuel-Thomas 45), Jimmy Bullard, Keith Andrews, Mark Kennedy (Josh Carson 45), Michael Chopra, Daryl Murphy (Jason Scotland 38). Subs not used: Cody Cropper, Ibrahima Sonko.
Referee: Nigel Miller (Co. Durham).
Attendance: 12,499.