Steve Cotterill's Burnley 1 Stoke 0

Just two years ago, at the same Jimmy Mac end of the ground, he scored the only goal of the game but this time he was in Burnley colours and it signalled our first home win against them since, well, since Steve Cotterill was manager of Stoke.

It was a very much deserved win in the end but it wasn’t always like that and the first half is not one people will be rushing to buy on DVD when we could have perhaps considered ourselves just a little bit fortunate to be level.

There were two changes ahead of the game with Wade Elliott, as expected, replacing the departed Nathan Dyer who just three hours earlier had made his full league debut for Southampton. The other change saw Gifton Noel-Williams make his first league start since the 1-1 draw against Brighton back in September.

Our front two must have looked familiar to the visiting fans. Both of them received warm welcomes from the Stoke fans before the game, as did Wayne Thomas, although there were no such pleasantries for James O’Connor and certainly not for Steve Cotterill.

We created the first chance of sorts but made nothing of it, but it wasn’t the brightest of starts for either side in a game that was already being spoiled by Nigel Miller, someone who shouldn’t be anywhere near football grounds on a match day.

Stoke threatened a couple of times with free kicks, both taken by Paul Gallagher who is on loan from our neighbours down the M65. There was certainly no opportunity for us to threaten with a free kick, we weren’t to win one throughout the entire first half.

Despite the visitors having more of the play it was the Clarets who came within a whisker of taking the lead and it was the two players coming into the side who did all but get that lead for us. Wade got in a superb cross from the right that was met by Gifton who was so unlucky to see his header come off the bar.

The closest Stoke came was from Sammy Bangoura who put a shot just wide of Brian Jensen’s post after getting away with the most outrageous of handballs just inside our box. I’m not suggesting it was blatant but it made Diego Maradona’s in the 1986 World Cup look subtle. Incredibly the officials looked on bemused when we dared to question the lack of a decision.

Half time came and we certainly didn’t deserve anything better than the 0-0 scoreline. It was time for Steve Cotterill to try and turn things round whilst we brought a star onto the pitch in Jimmy McIlroy. What a reception for the greatest ever Claret, and not just from the home fans but from all four sides of the ground.

Would Jimmy Mac help lift the performance? I’m not sure what effect he could have had but there’s no doubt that the second half performance was different altogether and it was a half when we never allowed Stoke to get into the game.

Stoke had the first attack when Luke Chadwick got clear down the right, but our former loan player who as turned flattering to deceive into an art form could make little of it. Not too long after that we were in front and with just a little more steadiness in front of goal we could have had the whole game sewn up.

There’s no doubt that teams look more dangerous when they get wide and that’s exactly what we did three times in the space of about five minutes and the Stoke defence couldn’t cope with us.

Firstly Branchy got in a cross from the left that James O’Connor all but got on the end of. If we thought that our chance had gone then in the very next attack we took the lead. Wade linked well with Michael Duff who got in a top cross. It was met at the back post, although whether it was Gifton or a defender I’m not so sure, and played back across for Ade to turn it in from close range against his former club.

We kept going down the flanks and another Duff cross almost brought a second goal but Branchy’s downward header bounced over the bar and then he had a shot blocked after getting on the end of an Elliott cross.

Then came the big moment in the game, it came with almost 68 minutes on the clock and brought the home fans to their feet. What was it? Referee Nigel Miller awarded us a free kick, incredibly our first free kick of the game. He got carried away after that and gave us another two before the final whistle, needless to say none of them were in dangerous areas.

Stoke had a half chance that was wasted by Sidibe and then Wade almost wrapped it up when he cut inside only to see his shot go inches wide of the post with the keeper well beaten.

We’d well and truly seen this Stoke side off and they were offering nothing as we controlled the closing minutes of the game, even the amazing five and a half minutes that were played after the ninety.

Sadly the game ended in some controversy with some incidents on the pitch after the final whistle. Steve Cotterill told the press afterwards that Sammy Bangoura had slapped Frank Sinclair across the face after Frank went up to shake his hand. If he did, then it was the only positive thing he did all afternoon other than the handball.

We’ll let Stoke clear up the mess, it appeared to be their players who caused the problems after the final whistle and it was their fans who looked to have been involved in another unsavoury incident.

We’ll just look back on another win, our sixth successive home league win, and it is just over five years since we last did that and we can take a look at the league table that shows us in fifth place, and we haven’t been that high since April 2002.

The first half performance was not the best but we turned it round in the second half and in the end we fully deserved to beat a team that started the day three places above us. We were better than them.

Choosing a man of the match is not an easy task, there were good performances all over the pitch, particularly in the second half. The sponsors gave it to Wade Elliott and I wouldn’t disagree with them after he turned in his best performance yet in a Burnley shirt. I’m going for Micah Hyde though. I thought his first half performance was vital in keeping us level and he prompted so much after the break.

Now we move on to Norwich where we can expect to be greeted by snow and maybe Delia will have been on the cooking sherry again. As for Stoke and their fans, a message: Move on lads, Steve Cotterill is our manager now and is going nowhere and he’s turning us into a damn good side. And remember yours is the only job he has walked out on, I think that says more about you than it does about him.

Today’s teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch (Wayne Thomas 86), Ade Akinbiyi, Gifton Noel-Williams. Subs not used: Lee Grant, Garreth O’Connor, Danny Karbassiyoon, John Spicer.

Stoke: Steve Simonsen, John Halls, Carl Hoefkens, Michael Duberry, Marlon Broomes, Luke Chadwick, Dave Brammer, Darel Russell, Paul Gallagher, Mamady Sidibe, Sammy Bangoura. Subs not used: Ed de Goey, Junior, Peter Sweeney, Lewis Buxton, Karl Henry.

Referee: Nigel Miller (Co Durham).

Attendance: 17,912.