When Irish eyes are smiling

I don't think many of the fans making their way to the ground could have cared how we were going to play, they just wanted a win to end this dreadful run and to get us a bit further away from the bottom clubs. That's all that mattered.

As the final whistle brought the game to an end it was more relief than celebration, in fact it was all relief, we'd forgotten how to win and for three of the players on the pitch it was a first ever win in Burnley colours.

The win over Leeds was so long ago we'd almost forgotten it, just as a reminder it was eighteen weeks ago and the goals were scored by Gifton Noel-Williams and Andy Gray. Eighteen long, long weeks that have brought nothing more than draws and defeats and have seen us plummet from a play off position to within touching distance of the bottom three.

Steve Cotterill's been making changes match by match, his comments have been getting more and more bizarre, and he even tried changing the shorts and socks against Luton to change the luck. It's ridiculous to think that might work, but I took a different route tonight and wore different shoes so it's not just the manager who does these things.

There were three changes tonight. Out went Graham Coughlan, Chris McCann and Ade Akinbiyi, all three of them consigned to the subs bench. In their places came Michael Duff, who surprisingly played at full back with Wayne Thomas partnering Steven Caldwell in the centre, Wade Elliott and James O'Connor. Paul McVeigh played further forward alongside Andy Gray.

As the game got underway it looked as though many fans had decided enough was enough and voted with their feet. The stands looked as empty as they have done in a long time and not surprisingly the away support did little to boost the attendance.

Burnley came out of the traps quicker than Ballyregan Bob and with some real purpose. They had Plymouth on the back foot immediately and I'm not so sure they'd have been able to stop us if they'd got Sir Francis Drake off the bowling green.

There was confusion in their penalty box from the very first attack, and not because the goalkeeper was wearing an almost identical shirt to the rest of the side. In the first ten minutes we offered considerably more than we'd done against Luton on Saturday and all it needed was a goal.

We came close a couple of times but that first goal wasn't too long in coming. We won a free kick on the left hand side that was taken by the very impressive Wade Elliott. His cross was met by Michael Duff who headed home despite Luke McCormick getting a hand to it.

You'd have thought we'd won the FA Cup as fans, players and staff alike celebrated. I know it was only a 1-0 lead against Plymouth but this was only the second time we'd been in front in a game since mid-December.

On the other occasion, against Sheffield Wednesday, the lead lasted no more than three minutes, but this time it was seven minutes before we saw another goal. I suppose we could call it route one football as the move started with goalkeeper Brian Jensen.

His kick up field was headed on by Gray to McVeigh who got himself clear, took it round the keeper and slotted it home with two defenders chasing back to get a better view of the ball crossing the line. This was something, two goals up now, the first time that had happened since that fateful day when RK Sunderland came back, so that was a reminder that work was still to be done.

To be fair this Plymouth side hadn't given much indication that they might come back, but more than that we weren't letting them. There was a hunger and a desire there that seemed to be lacking against Luton, and that was now coupled with the confidence of being two goals in front.

Two in front did I say? Make that three. Seven minutes before the interval some poor defending by Plymouth eventually helped the ball on to Steve Jones and this time the former Crewe player delivered the football. He hit his shot past McCormick and into the bottom corner.

We nearly got another before the interval, but we shouldn't be greedy and 3-0 was good enough even though it was taking some believing. I remember last season when, after a disappointing start to the season, we beat Ipswich 3-0 with three Dubliners getting the goals. This time it was three of our Northern Ireland contingent who had found the net for us.

Early in the second half Plymouth probably had their best spell of the game. They had more possession but hardly threatened us and there was certainly going to be no way back for them. There certainly wasn't just past the hour when Elliott got in on the act with the best goal of the night.

Surprisingly left out on Saturday, apparently for not scoring enough goals, he took a ball on his chest about ten yards outside the box. He got it down, went past a defender into the penalty box on the right hand side and then hit his shot into the far bottom corner. It could be a real goal of the season contender.

That was it for the scoring, but we shouldn't be greedy, after all we had doubled our goal tally for 2007. There could have been more but in the end the closest we got to another goal was at the other end when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake does what he does best, he went down in the penalty box, just as he'd shown us at Home Park.

Eric Djemba-Djemba was the Burnley player alongside him but the Plymouth substitute had conned the Flood Warden into giving a penalty to the astonishment of the Burnley players. Justice was done, they put the spot kick wide, and just to make it even better it was Ebanks-Blake who missed it.

4-0 it finished and what a pleasant experience it was leaving the Turf. It was a relief to get that win, no doubt about that, and hopefully it will have given us the belief we need to go and do it again. We are still in a relegation battle and we still need points, but we've finally seen that we are still capable of going and getting them.

We haven't beaten a world class side, we haven't even beaten a top Championship side, but we've beaten a side that were far better than the one we couldn't beat on Saturday. It doesn't matter though, you can only beat what's put in front of you.

There were good performances in all areas of the pitch, and it seems almost unfair to single some out. Brian Jensen's handling was excellent and at the other end of the pitch we finally saw Andy Gray playing like we know Andy Gray can. His was a significant performance and the only disappointment was that he didn't get himself a goal.

Wade and Jimmy O were back and both had really good games. Either of them could so easily have got my nomination for man of the match. But for me one player stood out in a good performance and that was, and not for the first time, Eric Djemba-Djemba. He is going to be a key figure over the next few games.

No more will we have to read about that long run without a win - it's over, it's finally come to and end and we can move on. Yes, what a relief.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, Steven Caldwell, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Garreth O'Connor 76), Eric Djemba-Djemba, James O'Connor (Chris McCann 70), Steve Jones, Andy Gray (Ade Akinbiyi 85), Paul McVeigh. Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Graham Coughlan.

Plymouth: Luke McCormick, Paul Connolly, Marcel Seip, Krisztian Timar, Tony Capaldi, Dan Gosling (Bojan Djordjic 72), Lee Hodges (Akos Buzsaky 35), Lilian Nalis, Scott Sinclair, Barry Hayles, Rory Fallon (Sylvan Ebanks-Blake 60). Subs not used: Peter Halmosi, Gary Sawyer.

Referee: Andy Hall (W Midlands).

Attendance: 9,793.