It meant we had to settle for a 1-1 draw. It was gutting and it was equally unexpected. Yes, they'd put us under a bit of late pressure with their direct style of play but in truth had not really looked like scoring and it had taken until stoppage time to force Lee Grant into a save.
Then came that awful moment and right in front of us as Dunn finished it off with a shot into the bottom corner.
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| Burnley fans start boarding the buses at Turf Moor |
We'd been in front from the 32nd minute when captain Jason Shackell scored his first ever Burnley goal, tucking the ball in from close range after he himself had headed a Ross Wallace free kick against the post, but it wasn't to be as the wait still goes on.
The day had started at some unnecessary early hour for many, to get down to the Turf to find a car park full of buses, many of them looking anything but road worthy. Eventually they took us to Ewood Park at some 20 mph in time for us to arrive in chaos as supporters struggled to get through the over packed concourse.
It's an appalling way to be treated but right now, and things have to change, this is the only way we can go to see this game and it's put up with it or not go.
We finally got the team news and Sean Dyche had made two changes to the team that had played so miserably against Hull six days ago.
Out went both David Edgar and Keith Treacy with neither of them even making the bench. Marvin Bartley and Martin Paterson came in with the two vacancies amongst the substitutes going to Brian Stock and Junior Stanislas.
With the game finally underway, it's fair to say the opening was a bit scrappy with the only thing of note coming when Charlie Austin hit an effort way over the bar.
Neither side settled anything like as well as the chicken that suddenly appeared on the touchline in front of the Riverside. The two clubs and the police have plans in place to prevent chickens being brought into the ground but, just as it was at Turf Moor, the plans failed miserably as did the steward who tried to catch it.
As the half went on so Burnley got better. Martin Paterson saw Jake Kean (there isn't only one Keano) save his close range effort and the Blackburn goalkeeper then did really well to get down to deny Ross Wallace with a long ranger.
Between those two efforts we might have scored from the old, previously trusted, corner routine. Wallace's kick was dummied by Michael Duff but Austin blazed his shot from just inside the box into the Burnley fans in the Darwen End.
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| Jason Shackell's first Burnley goal, so close to giving us the win we crave |
Then it came. No one could deny that we deserved the lead although I'm not sure many would have predicted the scorer. We won a free kick which Wallace played into the box. Jason Shackell met it but was so unlucky to head against the post before finishing expertly from the rebound.
Suddenly the home side were ragged. We had them on the rack and only the totally inconsistent referee Andy D'Urso will know how the big lumbering Grant Hanley stayed on the pitch.
Yes, he yellow carded him for the foul on Paterson but took no action at his reaction which should surely have got him a straight red card.
He nearly paid in any case but Wallace became the second Burnley player to hit the woodwork which denied us a 2-0 lead from the free kick.
What a pity we couldn't get a second before half time. Had we done so I'm sure it would have been enough to win this game. The performance was from another plant to what we've seen recently at Turf Moor.
There seemed very little change to the play in the early part of the second half when we hit the woodwork for a third time. Now it was Charlie but it wouldn't have counted as the alert assistant referee flagged him offside.
Then the whole nature of the game changed. Ben Mee was yellow carded just before the hour. It looked very harsh to me but seven minutes later he got himself a second. It was down at the far end but having seen it again there could be no real complaint.
We'd 25 minutes plus stoppage time to play with ten men. Chris McCann initially dropped in to left back but soon after Wallace, following a foul that incredibly went unpunished, was forced off and Danny Lafferty came on at left back.
Blackburn were seeing more of the ball now but we were dealing with most of it comfortably. Shackell and Duff were both in outstanding form and for much of the remainder of the game there seemed no real problem.
There were a couple of scrambles in the box but we were into the six minutes added on at the end before they troubled Grant who got down to hold a ball that moved considerably in the air.
Almost five of those six minutes had gone when the disaster struck. Dyche is convinced that it was offside and that makes it even worse. We were almost there. We'd almost finally beaten them again, and then we conceded a goal that shouldn't have stood before watching scorer Dunn show himself up with his baiting of the Burnley fans.
Off came the shirt before he returned to the Darwen End. Was he even yellow carded? The stats provided by the Press Association suggest not. It says much of D'Urso's performance today if that's the case although I'm convinced I saw the yellow card and have included it at the bottom of this report.
I couldn't wait to get out of the place at the final whistle and get home, hardly expecting that the return journey, once we'd departed, was going to take three quarters of an hour.
Our players and our manager have taken some considerable stick in the last month. Criticism has been just given the poor level of performance at home, even though some have gone way over the top.
There can be little criticism today even though we didn't get that win we all crave. They gave us everything, they played so much better and we got men forward in a way we haven't recently at home.
Some former manager might say it augurs well; I won't, but it has given me hope that we can put some results together before this season comes to an end.
As for today, I'm gutted. I'm absolutely gutted.
The teams were;
Blackburn: Jake Kean, Todd Kane, Scott Dann, Grant Hanley, Martin Olson (Nuno Gomes 87), David Dunn, Jason Lowe, David Jones, Cameron Stewart, Leon Best (Josh Morris 45), Jordan Rhodes. Subs not used: Grzegorz Sandomierski, Gael Givet, Morten Gamst Pedersen, Lee Williamson, Karim Rekik.
Yellow Cards: Grant Hanley, Scott Dann, David Dunn.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Ross Wallace (Danny Lafferty 70), Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann, Alex Kačaniklič, Martin Paterson (Sam Vokes 84), Charlie Austin (Danny Ings 81). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Kevin Long, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas.
Yellow Cards: Charlie Austin, Ben Mee.
Red Card: Ben Mee.
Referee: Andy D'Urso (Billericay).
Attendance: 20,735 (including 4,000 Clarets).