The Final Countdown

We are out of both the League Cup and the FA Cup; though we came within two minutes of a Final date at Wembley with that tremendous comeback against Harry’s Spurs at Turf Moor, and come the end of the Bristol City game on May 3^rd, we will have played 58 games. 58 games…what an achievement by any team’s standards, but for a squad of Burnley’s size given the players out on loan, it is nothing shy of remarkable. We’ve had a remarkable season by anybody’s standards. We have managed to beat a quarter of the Premiership within two cup competitions; not just against lower end opposition like West Bromwich Albion and Fulham, but Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham too.

The money from the cup runs will indeed further assist us in terms of minimizing the deficit we have every season, but we need to thank Barry Kilby, Brendan Flood and the board at Burnley Football Club for all they have done for us down the years. They have controlled our finances as best as possible for quite some time, and whilst Kilby could have used the money from Kyle Lafferty’s transfer to Glasgow Rangers to lower the season’s losses, he opted instead to provide manager Owen Coyle with finances to bring in players in a bid to mount a campaign in the league.

In the summer of 2008, Coyle had released numerous players that had their contracts finishing; including the very experienced defender David Unsworth. But it was who he was to bring in that would change the face of Burnley’s up coming season.

Clarets boss Owen Coyle brought in Peruvian Goalkeeper Diego Penny, Scotsmen Kevin McDonald & Steve Thompson, Northern Ireland hitman Martin Paterson and Manchester United’s English wing ace Chris Eagles all on permanent deals. But it wasn’t the issue of who we brought in that was the concern as we got further into the campaign.

For the past few seasons in particular, we have sold star players in the January transfer window; Andy Gray to Charlton, Ade Akinbiyi to Sheffield United and Robbie Blake to Birmingham City to name a few; and so Claret fans felt very uneasy as the window opened on New Years Day. However, Burnley kept hold of their big stars. The only players going were those out on loan, which was brilliant news in terms of Burnley’s finances for the remainder of the season.

We had been knocked out of the Carling Cup semi final’s at the expense…the unjustified expense of Tottenham Hotspur after a remarkable, gut wrenching, heart pulsating battle that no fan there on the night will ever forget. But we did keep our hopes of a second cup run alive thanks to the 2-2 draw away at West Brom, before battering them at the Turf in the replay. However, the draw for the next round was unkind to us this time. We had beaten them 2-0 in the home Carling Cup battle at Turf Moor, but we were faced with the Nye on impossible challenge of Arsenal; for a second time this season, but away at the Emirates Stadium.

As I had said in my Carling Cup article, we punished Arsené Wenger for underestimating us in the Carling cup quarter finals. However, the mindful and well respected manager did not take us lightly this time around, and put out an extremely strong squad for the Fa Cup date at the Emirates, and this proved to be one task too hard to handle for Burnley. Three quality finishes from Carlos Vela, Eduardo and Emanuel Eboue put us down and sent us crashing out of the cup the weekend before my birthday.

However, since our cup dates with destiny, we have had 100% concentration on the promotion battle.Teams around us are taking us as serious contenders for promotion, and quite rightly so.

Within one week we had come back from 2-0 down on my birthday ripping Crystal Palace to pieces 4-2 whilst putting in that good of a performance against little Billy’s Nottingham Forest we could have finished with a cricket score.Those two results proved to be in my opinion the most important of our season so far.

We sat at the start of April in the Playoff positions; more importantly by a 4 point gap between us in 5^th place and 7^th place Preston. But the work starts now. We have had a very gracious break in our season for the International fixtures in the form of World Cup qualifiers, but it is when we came back that the hard work began away at Pride park. with one further point gained. Out of our remaining games, we have two whereby we do battle with fellow playoff contenders in Cardiff City and Sheffield United, whilst we also have a game against Southampton; struggling at the wrong end of the league.

Whether we are guaranteed a playoff spot come the Bristol city game on May 3^rd remains to be seen, but there is no question of doubt that this has been one of the most remarkable and gut wrenching seasons I have ever witnessed as a Burnley fan.

We have had victories against some of the worlds top sides, have had uphill battles and overcome them and overachieved in every way possible.

We are in to the final countdown. It is time to stand up and be counted. Together….we can do it!