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Before the game the usual Clarets banner made its way along to the centre circle along with ten or so teenagers to perform their duty of holding it up and waving it about. They promptly lost control of the banner which showered them in water to the delight of the travelling Bristol City fans.
The one minute silence for the passing away of former Burnley vice-chairman and later president Dr David Iven was of course immaculately observed.
As for the game the signs were not good. With midfielders McCann, Gudjonsson and Spicer all still suspended and Mahon having not recovered from injury things were looking desperate in that department with James O'Connor the only available recognised inner midfielder to have played for us this season. Alexander was also suspended for this one to further stretch an already paper thin squad. Looking at the bench today was enough to tell you just how stretched we are, Beast debatably being the only player who could do a good job if brought on. Garreth O'Connor, Jay Rodriguez, Adam Kay (youth team midfielder) and Steve Jones warmed the bench.
The side basically picked itself... everyone who was available played. Steven Caldwell moved to right back to fill in for Alexander while David Unsworth partnered Clarke Carlisle in central defence. Jordan came into the side at left back while Jon Harley moved into central midfield to partner James O'Connor. Ade partnered Robbie Blake up from with Gray still out injured.
Bristol City started well and had the better of the first 10 minutes creating a host of good chances. Ivan Sproule was particularly instrumental in creating these as he ran down the wing exposing Stephen Jordan's lack of pace and confidence time and again. Gabor Kiraly was forced into a save from Sproule after only 90 seconds and a second Sproule shot a moment later went wide to the relief of Jordan who was again at fault. Kiraly was also forced into a dramatic looking second save from a McCombe looping header. But that was to be the end of Bristol City's dominance and Burnley created most of the chances from then on.
It was to be a frustrating afternoon for Ade who went close on numerous occasions. His first chance came as a result of a flick on by Robbie Blake. Ade reached the ball, shot from a fairly tight angle, and the ball somehow went straight through City keeper Basso hitting the inside of the post and rolled along the line to relative safety. When you're on the kind of run we are on, those just don't go in.
Then came disaster... On 32 minutes came yet another blow to a side ravaged by suspensions and injury, Carlisle being the injured player this time who was quickly replaced by Steve Jones who played on the right wing with Elliott dropping to right back. Steve Jones had little impact on the game after his initial shot was saved and was largely anonymous which did not help our ability to attack. He has looked for a long time now a shadow of the player who terrorised defences in the first half of last season and didn't seem to put the effort in for whatever reason.
Despite this setback we continued to create the better chances with Ade again hitting the post just before half time. After the break it was to be more of the same with Ade shooting into the side netting and a long range shot from Jon Harley being the early highlights.
As is always the way with Burnley at the moment, when you look in control of a game you can guarantee we will miss all our chances and that the opposition will take theirs... and so it proved when a McIndoe free kick was put into the net by Vasko. We had done plenty of attacking, we had plenty of chances, and looked in control defensively but somehow you never really thought we were going to score and the goal was not a surprise when it went in. Young Jay Rodriguez was introduced for the last few minutes but did not manage any efforts on goal in his short spell.
So there you have it, the long winless home run continues and I personally can't see where the win is going to come from. If we were struggling away from home we'd be 10 points adrift at the bottom by now.
Two wins this season is not good enough but again today you couldn't fault the effort from the players. Yet at the same time we are all desperate for a home win. So what do we do? We can't blame the manager, we can't blame the players, we can't blame the board and we can't blame the refs. All we can do is get behind the team each and every game at the moment and try to help the team with our support. We all love Burnley football club and that is why 12,000 people were there freezing to death and wet through despite it being the worst day imaginable to see a game of football.
Owen Coyle has done his best with the players at his disposal but the transfer window will be our first real chance to see what he's made of. Keep the faith! Bring on Arsenal.