I'm sure most Burnley fans were happy ahead of last Saturday's win against Charlton but it's hard to say just how we are feeling one week on having despatched Charlton comfortably, played equally well to beat Doncaster, revelled in Danny Ings' England under-21 call, delighted in Sean Dyche winning the September manager of the month award and then, to cap all that, turning in the most awesome of performances to beat Reading, one of the promotion favourites.
This was the tough one we kept hearing with some suggesting we'd beaten no team of any note so far, but the doubters were put very firmly in their place as we took all three points again in a game that we might just have won by more goals than we did.
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| Danny Ings opened the scoring |
But that doesn't matter. Ings and then Sam Vokes got the goals again to put us into what looked an unassailable lead with ten minutes to go and only a freak own goal and a few nerves delayed the victory celebrations as Burnley went into the October international break still on top of the league.
"We are top of the league," could be heard all round the ground just before referee Mike Jones blew his final whistle yesterday and no wonder, it had been very much a top of the league performance.
Dyche made the one expected change, Dean Marney returning from suspension with David Edgar, who had deputised well at Doncaster, returning to the bench.
We started the game ever so well, attacking the cricket field end, and were soon very much into our stride. The only thing missing in the opening fifteen minutes or so was a lack of real goal scoring opportunities but we'd certainly got Reading on the back foot.
Reading boss Nigel Adkins had certainly set his side up to try and contain us and we saw little of them going forwards and in situations like that it sometimes takes that first goal to open things up, so it was with some relief that we got it with not much over twenty minutes gone.
It came from a Kieran Trippier cross from a deep position out on the right wing. I'm sure Adkins will believe his two central defenders, first Alex Pearce and then Sean Morrison, should have dealt with it.
They didn't and that meant just one thing with Ings coming in at the back post. From close range he gave goalkeeper Alex McCarthy no chance and Burnley were a goal to the good.
One could have become two or even more in the next ten minutes or so as we put the visiting defence under some enormous pressure. Michael Kightly, in his best performance yet for Burnley, saw a shot blocked. It was half cleared to David Jones whose effort from 30 yards was parried by the goalkeeper who then recovered just in time as Vokes came in.
Marney was the next to see a shot blocked. He pounced to get the loose ball back and played the perfect ball to the far post for Scott Arfield who headed back across goal only to see it go agonisingly wide of the far post with no one there to get a touch.
Another goal a this point and who knows how many we might have gone on to win by but Reading, who had offered precious little, let us know they were still in the game when big Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak headed a right wing cross towards goal that Tom Heaton did really well to head over.
Other than a routine save to deny Jordan Obita that was about it for the Burnley 'keeper in the first half with McCarthy still the busier although he could have done nothing had an Ings shot gone just the other side of the post as he shot narrowly wide in the last minute of the half.
A 1-0 lead at half time lead was richly deserved and as we continued to take the game to Reading after the break it forced them into making drastic changes with Adkins making a triple substitution just before the hour.
By then McCarthy had saved well from Arfield after he'd received the ball from Ings and nothing much changed, in fact McCarthy proved to be a real hero for Reading with a string of fine saves to keep the score down.
Without him they could have gone home with a mauling. He saved again from Jones and denied Ings three times in what was becoming a battle between the two of them. He saved his shot from the outside of the box, got down to deny him a goal in a one-on-one and then, tipped a header wide after Jason Shackell had headed on a corner.
It was just starting to get a little bit frustrating. We were by far and away the better side but at 1-0 there is always that nagging doubt. Surely it just needed another goal and that would be it, and it came with ten minutes to go.
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| Sam Vokes scored the second and scored in all three games this week |
Kightly did brilliantly to recover the ball for Burnley before playing it up to Ings who then played the ball in for Vokes who beat the offside trap to the right of goal. He drew McCarthy towards him and then shot across him and into the far bottom corner.
That was surely it. Ten minutes to go and 2-0 up and I can't recall Heaton having had anything to do in the second half.
The two goal lead lasted just two minutes. A left wing cross went beyond the far post. Pogrebnyak made only his second purposeful contribution by heading it back; the ball struck the near post, bounced off Shackell and into the net.
Reading had one more chance when Gunter headed straight into the hands of Heaton. It would have been nothing other than a robbery had they been able to snatch a point.
Three minutes of stoppage time became four when Trippier went down but we saw it through with ease. We'd done more than enough to win this football match and we were not letting it go.
It's five successive league wins now and even I've had to go looking it up to see when that last happened. It takes us back almost 12 years to a period in November and December 2001.
On that occasion we won six on the bounce against Watford (h), Coventry (a), Grimsby (h), Crystal Palace (a), Preston (a) and Stockport (h) as Stan Ternent's team sat exactly where Dyche's does right now.
That was a fantastic time to be a Burnley fan and the same can be said right now. A friend of mine described yesterday's performance as the best since we drew 1-1 with Arsenal in the Premier League. I'd find it hard to disagree with that.
One poster on the message board last night said: "If you are not going on at the moment, you are really, really missing out and missing performances like this will be regretted in years to come."
Yes, that's how good it was yesterday when every single player turned in an outstanding performance, so much so that Dyche opted not to make one single change throughout, and it's the first time that's happened in almost seven years.
What a way to go into an international break. What a week we've had as Clarets. It's been brilliant.
The teams were;
Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Michael Kightly, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, David Edgar, Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas, Keith Treacy.
Reading: Alex McCarthy, Chris Gunter, Sean Morrison, Alex Pearce, Wayne Bridge, Hal Robson-Kanu (Nick Blackman 58), Chris Baird (Jake Taylor 58), Danny Guthrie, Jordan Obita, Jobi McAnuff (Adam Le Fondre 59), Pavel Pogrebnyak. Subs not used: Adam Federici, Stephen Kelly, Kaspars Gorkss, Hope Akpan.
Yellow Cards: Jobi McAnuff, Nick Blackman.
Referee: Mike Jones (Chester).
Attendance: 11,256.