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But if you want to know why we are struggling at the bottom then it was all there today as horrendous defensive lapses cost us dearly. We’ve made a habit of failing to win after being in front this season but losing three leads inside the first fifty minutes is a new way of doing it.
We’ve been in front in 22 of our 39 league matches this season but the league table doesn’t lie, we have won just ten of them. We can’t keep leads and the way we defended today it is hardly a surprise.
Do you remember Stan having a go at fans last week who questioned the wisdom of playing Graham Branch in the centre of defence? Seven days later that certainly backfired on him as the hesitant former skipper, he doesn’t seem to lead the team these days, looked nothing like the player who had done so well at Bradford.
Many times he put his side under pressure with poor defending and a few of his now trade mark clearances straight up into the air.
But behind him is a major problem, the goalkeeper Brian Jensen. Yes he has his good games, he was man of the match at Bradford last week. That is not good enough and this was another performance where the Danish keeper cost us badly with another totally inept performance.
I looked across at the Norwich bench and saw their substitute keeper Paul Crichton and wished we could turn the clock back.
Stan made two changes to the side that won at Bradford. Lee Roche, as expected, came in for Dean West but there was a surprise in midfield with Paul Weller in the starting line up in place of Richard Chaplow who dropped to the bench.
Again there was no sign of one of the new signings Lenny Johnrose and an even shorter appearance than last week for the other Dele Adebola. The striker strained a stomach muscle after just two weeks at Bradford but managed to do the same in the warm up today and we had to hurriedly get Alan Moore onto the bench.
We started well and were in front after just seven minutes with a first Burnley goal for Neil Wood. He’d already come close to scoring after a great run by Mo Camara but as Robbie Blake moved away the Manchester United loanee took a free kick outside the box and curled it into the bottom corner.
The Clarets were in no trouble at all, well not until Jensen stepped in seven minutes after out goal and presented Norwich with the simplest of equalisers. He came out for a ball that should have been caught but instead flapped at it. The ball came down for Mathias Svensson who scored via a deflection from David May.
It didn’t seem to deter us though and we carried on pressing towards the Norwich goal and any neutral observer would have been hard pushed to believe this was the top of the league against a side fighting to avoid relegation.
On the half hour we were back in front and it was a real rarity, a goal from a corner. They don’t come often at Burnley and should be savoured and it was skipper David May, he does lead the team out, who got on the end of Robbie Blake’s corner to knock it home.
The celebrations weren’t to last too long though and just thirty seconds after the restart we gifted Norwich a second equaliser and what a farce this was as Darren Huckerby, he of lots of pace and precious little ability, was allowed to run through and score with so much ease it was frightening.
Branch blamed Jensen who blamed Branch and as they looked all set to come to blows Mo Camara came to back up Branch. And there was no hiding who the manager blamed. He stood there glaring at Jensen.
Neither came out of it very well and by now the relationship between keeper and defence was fragile to say the least.
Who cares though? No sooner had the threats died down than we were back in front again and from the trusted feet of Blake. It was another cracking goal from our leading scorer again put clear by Glen Little.
Branch and Camara rushed to try and patch up their differences with Jensen instead of celebrating the goal and for a while it looked as though it might have done some good.
This time we held the lead and went in at half time 3-2 up but it really should have been a bigger lead than that. Defensive lapses, or should I be saying goalkeeping errors, had cost us what could have been an almost guaranteed match winning lead.
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From the restart we handed the initiative to the visitors and it took them very little time to make the most of it. Just six minutes in and they equalised for a third time and again there were massive question marks about Jensen.
He came and got nowhere near a cross from the left and Leon McKenzie was left with the simplest of tasks of heading the ball into the empty net.
You sense we had had our chance and blown it and that is exactly how it unfolded. Just over ten minutes later and Norwich were in front when Svensson headed home a left wing cross.
We were seeing nothing of the Clarets now, there was none of the exciting forward play of the first half and the league leaders were fully in control.
Stan shuffled the pack with three substitutions that and some positional changes that saw Branch move up front and then go back again but it succeeded only in making things worse with hardly anyone appearing to know where they were playing.
The discussions have gone on all season as to whether it should be Little or Chadwick on the right when they both play. We have finally solved it, they both played there in the closing minutes.
We hoped for an equaliser but it was never anything more than hope and in the end it was Norwich who scored again to make it five with a goal from Huckerby.
The ground emptied, not as though it made much difference, the atmosphere again had been dreadful. I am a firm believer that the nonsense with goal music, cheerleaders and all wrecks the real passionate atmosphere. It is certainly clear that it doesn’t generate one. How I wish we could recreate what we had at Bradford last week.
So 5-3 it was and a game that told us all just why we are struggling at the bottom and just why we still have a big fight on our hands to stay in this division.
A word about referee Andy Hall wouldn’t go amiss either. He has never refereed like that before but full marks to him today. He did his job with lots of common sense and looked as much as possible to let the players get on with playing. I could hardly believe it was him.
Do you remember last week’s comments about Branch? "People say he’s not supposed to be able to play at centre back." Quite right Stan, quite right.
And how I wish Nigel Worthington had left Paul Crichton behind – we have certainly not had as good a keeper since.
Today’s teams were:
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, David May, Graham Branch, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Paul Weller (Luke Chadwick 68), Tony Grant (Alan Moore 80), Neil Wood (Richard Chaplow 73), Robbie Blake, Ian Moore. Subs not used: Nathan Abbey, Mark McGregor.
Norwich: Robert Green, Marc Edworthy, Malky Mackay, Craig Fleming, Adam Drury, Paul McVeigh (Kevin Cooper 37), Gary Holt, Simon Francis, Darren Huckerby, Leon McKenzie (Phil Mulryne 72), Mathias Svensson (Iwan Roberts 90). Subs not used: Paul Crichton, Ian Henderson.
Referee: Andy Hall (Birmingham).