Oh what fun it is to see Burnley win away

Not for one minute did I think last night's game could even come close to matching last season's incredible 3-2 win there, but Luton previously unbeaten at home, going 2-0 up with both goals from our leading scorer and then being reduced to ten men certainly started to follow the same pattern. Thankfully, that's where it ended and there were no frantic and frightening moments during the last few minutes as we strolled comfortably towards the three points, only a flag tried to get in our way.

The goalscoring action all came in the five minute period just after the half hour as Andy Gray scored twice, and despite having a lot of defending to do at times, there was not a lot for goalkeeper Brian Jensen to do during the rest of the game as we coasted to the three points despite a red card for Stephen Foster and a broken corner flag.

Foster had come in for the injured Wayne Thomas and there was another change as Kyle Lafferty replaced Gifton Noel-Williams who, along with Garreth O'Connor, was suffering from flu. That left us with just sixteen players including Danny Coyne who took his place on the bench for the first time since suffering his cruciate ligament injury in September of last year.

It wasn't as though we desperately needed a spare goalkeeper, had anything happened to Brian Jensen we did have John Spicer on the bench who I'm sure would have loved to have gone in goal in an emergency.

We'd ended Friday's game against Preston with a flourish and started brightly in this game, but the early attacks came to nothing and it was the home side who really should have taken the lead when the ball broke for former QPR midfielder Richard Langley who somehow put his shot wide of the target.

It was a let off for the Clarets and it gave Luton the impetus for a short time. It needed a routine save from Jensen, a couple of good headers out of defence from Foster and Michael Duff, to keep out the home side who also won a couple of corners after Frank Sinclair had quickly cleared his lines.

By the half hour mark the game had evened itself out but we then took hold of it by the scruff of the neck, and in the next five minutes got the goals that would win us the points. We'd had a couple of shots that had gone wide of Marlon Beresford's goal, but there was no escape for the home side after Frank played a ball up to Kyle. It looked as though Kyle had been fouled, but the ball broke for Andy Gray who from fifteen yards managed to hook it over the stranded former Burnley keeper and into the net.

Five minutes later, and Kyle got the ball out to Wade Elliott on the right, and the former Bournemouth winger's cross was inch perfect for Gray who headed in from close range at the far post.

Things could have got worse for Luton as the Clarets dominated the rest of the first half but it was still 2-0 as referee Singh blew the half time whistle with the away support giving the players and ovation as they left the field.

Luton needed to get back into it quickly after the restart and they pushed forward at us, but they didn't really threaten to score, as long as you don't consider shots from distance that went either high or wide or both. They were getting lots of possession without ever really threatening us.

All we needed was a break, a third, and it would have been all over, but we weren't able to create too much and probably the closest we came was when Kyle got in a decent position on the right hand side but shot wide.

With seventeen minutes on the clock we weren't looking too concerned, but that's when Foster committed his second foul of the night, a foul that received the same punishment as the first, a yellow card. That saw Singh reach for his red card and for the second season in succession we were down to ten men in this fixture with a two goal lead.

We'd no central defenders on the bench, so Frank moved inside, Wade dropped into full back with Kyle going onto the right hand side. Within a couple of minutes Chris McCann came on for Steve Jones. Despite the need to shuffle, despite the one man deficit, we had no problems at all in keeping the home side out.

The clock was being run down, McCann had already come close to a goal, but then he stopped the game altogether when he crashed into the corner flag in the Luton right back position and broke it. I once saw FIFA referee George Courtney let a league game continue with no flags, but with one short, literally, the game was held up until a replacement could be found.

“Sh** ground, no flags,” sang the Burnley fans and after about five minutes a replacement flag was finally discovered and the game was allowed to continue. Six minutes of stoppage time were added, but I don't think we'd have conceded a goal had we stayed until midnight. The whistle came and it was away win number four.

It hadn't reached the quality of the performances at such as Palace and Norwich, but it has been a very professional performance and once in front we never looked as though we wouldn't win. We've equalled last season's points total of fifteen away from home, and are just one short of the twelve goals we scored on our travels last season.

There were good, solid performances right across the pitch, but my choice for man of the match was one between defender Duff and forward Gray. Forwards win matches, Andy got two, and he gets my vote.

The win has taken us up to third again, much more and Steve Cotterill will be freezing teletext again.

The teams were;

Luton: Marlon Beresford, Carlos Edwards, Leon Barnett, Markus Heikkinen, Peter Holmes, Ahmet Brkovic, Richard Langley, Steve Robinson, Warren Feeney (Adam Boyd 65), Dean Morgan (David Bell 65), Rowan Vine. Subs not used: Dean Brill, Russell Perrett, Steven O'Leary.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Michael Duff, Stephen Foster, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Steve Jones (Chris McCann 75), Kyle Lafferty, Andy Gray. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Graham Branch, John Spicer, Alan Mahon.

Referee: Jarnail Singh (Middlesex).

Attendance: 7,664.