The Premier League dream died today

Last updated : 28 March 2010 By Tony Scholes

I vowed to enjoy this season from start to last, no matter what it had in store for us. We started it on fire at home with four successive wins and we all dreamed of finishing way above the bottom even though Owen Coyle continued to tell us it would be a massive achievement just to stay up.

The doubts, what few there were, always came away from home as goal after goal after goal crashed in past Brian Jensen. And when the home wins stopped the inevitable slide down the league started.

I wasn't too worried to be honest. I'd walked out of Wembley with my feet hardly touching the ground but realistic enough to know that the 2009/10 season might just be our only one in the Premier League and that's exactly why I was going to enjoy every minute.

It's no fun when number five goes in at White Hart Lane, nor at the Boleyn Ground, it's not particularly good to watch Yossi Benayoun get three, and it is certainly not the best way to spend a Sunday when we concede three goals at Ewood Park.

But this was Burnley, little Burnley, fighting against the odds and making a decent fist of it. I think I realised eventually how it might all finish when we had a run of games against the lowest clubs in November and December and struggled to pick up any points.

Then came January and the departure of Coyle. This is not intended to go over old ground but he basically ripped the heart and soul out of our club when he opted to go to Bolton. It was awful the way he did it and it is something for which I, personally, will never forgive him.

Suddenly we were having to look for a new manager and that always brings uncertainty. Coyle had replaced Gary Megson at Bolton who had endured a torrid time from the fans for two years. It was horrible, and the abuse he got at Turf Moor on Boxing Day from his own fans was shocking.

Just a few days after Coyle and his disciples had gone we brought in Brian Laws as his replacement. Even before it had been announced there were supporters claiming it was a poor appointment and pledging not to give him a chance.

So, he took over a side on the slide, with some not behind him and things have, to put it mildly, gone worse. Yes his appointment was a surprise, certainly given he'd just lost his job at Sheffield Wednesday. Would he have been my choice? I have to say no.

And let's face it, since taking over it's been a struggle for him. We've won just one game since he came in, and that a somewhat fortunate one against West Ham, and have picked up just one other point from a draw against Stoke.

As each game has passed, and by that I mean home games, the pressure on Brian Laws has increased. Away from home it's not a problem and the travelling Burnley fans are fully behind the team throughout. In fact, I would say, although the results don't suggest it, that our form has improved away from home.

At home though it has gone worse and worse, and then came today. This was Blackburn Rovers we were playing, not some nondescript side from down south, but Blackburn Rovers our biggest rivals.

It was the game everyone had been talking about but when it came to it this lunchtime it might as well have been that nondescript side from down south.

I know the police went out of their way to ruin the day, just as they'd done with the Ewood Park clash in October, but I couldn't believe how bad it was. Earlier in the season the support and noise levels at home were something else, today it might as well have been played in a library.

It's not like that away thankfully, but as each home game has come the worse it has got. But against this lot?

It basically had all the makings of a shocker and that really is exactly what we got. Our fans were rightly lauded for the way we have got behind the team at some of the bigger venues, none more so than at Old Trafford and more recently at Villa Park. But it was reversed today with the visiting fans able to be heard above us.

There was no passion at all in the stands and there certainly wasn't any on the pitch, and the word pitch moves me on to the shocking state of our playing surface. How on earth is a football team expected to play on that? It's been used just 20 times this season and I'd challenge even Arsenal to pass and move the ball on that.

As for the game, it was littered with poor play and poor refereeing and it was probably no surprise that the only goal of the game came after a diabolical decision from Mike Dean, who of course I'd claimed was the best referee in the country ahead of the game.

By the time the cheating Martin Olsen had gone down we could have already been one down, but an assistant's flag somewhat fortuitously went up for offside. David Dunn, of all people, converted the spot kick and the writing was on the wall even then.

We should have had a penalty ourselves, we got a free kick, and then towards the end of the game we might just have converted the one decent ball we got into the box all afternoon. But I'm certainly not kidding myself, we didn't deserve to get anything from it. I'd say it was just about the worst game of the season so far at the Turf, possibly the worst since the last time we drew a blank at home in January last year against Swansea.

I felt gutted when the final whistle blew. Above all other games this is the one I wanted to win the most. I'd definitely have traded the Manchester United victory to have got three points from this one.

But worse for me was the whole occasion because it simply wasn't one at all, and leaving all I could hear was moaning and groaning about how bad we are. Well, we were never going to be a good side at this level, not with Coyle, not with Laws and not with any other manager who might have come in.

I wrote recently that I'd rather be losing next season at Arsenal than winning at Scunthorpe. I still would but it is looking very unlikely that we'll be a Premier League club by the time next season comes along.

That's a shame, but the biggest shame is that we haven't been able to enjoy it for what it is. Despite all the knocks we've taken this is little Burnley and we should have enjoyed every single minute of it no matter where we were in the league.

Now I just can't wait for it all to end - but at least I know there are still three away games to enjoy because they are very much a better experience than going on our own ground now.

Today's teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Michael Duff, Leon Cort, Stephen Jordan (Danny Fox 43), Wade Elliott, Graham Alexander (Chris Eagles 71), Kevin McDonald, Martin Paterson (Robbie Blake 59), Steven Fletcher, David Nugent. Subs not used: Nicky Weaver, Clarke Carlisle, Jack Cork, Steven Thompson.
Yellow Cards: Graham Alexander, Danny Fox, Michael Duff.

Blackburn: Jason Brown, Michel Salgado (Pascal Chimbonda 84), Christopher Samba, Phil Jones, Gael Givet, David Dunn, Steven Nzonzi, Martin Olsson, El-Hadji Diouf (Brett Emerton 65), Jason Roberts (Franco di Santo 74), Morten Gamst Pedersen. Subs not used: Bunn, Vince Grella, Nikola Kalinic, David Hoilett.
Yellow Cards: Christopher Samba, Gael Givet.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).

Attendance: 21,546.