Burnley FC - a claret and blue blog

Burnley FC End of Season review

2014-05-06T20:43:00.001+01:00

Burnley FC End of Season review.

This is a post I started writing at the begining of the 2013-14 season when Burnley FC had played just a few games. I never published it but it's interesting to look back on now we are going up.

Congratulations to the players and Sean Dyche.

Yes, Burnley live again! I thought we would have the usual opening day draw then go on an uncomfortable winless run until we loose to a relegation favourite, then go on a really good run.
Then we'd get near the play-offs and then have another winless run, followed by a slight upturn to get our hopes up, then fail for the play-offs and finish exactly mid-table.
It seems this time, however, things are slightly different. I would have preferred a win at home on the opening day but an away win so early in the season should be remarked upon. That was good. There, I remarked upon it.
And it looks like we have another Burnley legend in Danny Ings. Not only has the Burnley striker knocked in few goals in the first three games, but he has also made a name for himself by giving his boots away.
So after two games we sit on fourth position, so lets try and keep it up until after Christmas when the collapse can begin.
Also we need to beat dirty leeds (all lowercase for lack of respect) and more importantly b*****d rovers (same lack of respect thing).
If that happens I'll need a lie down, shortly preceded by several Spanish beers. "Why Spanish?" you may ask. Because I live in Spain now. How will I watch the games? I don't know yet as I can't get UK TV right now and Spanish TV folks aren't that bothered about the NPower Championship for some reason.

Weird eh?

COYC!

Barnsley 1 Burnley 0 FA Cup 3rd round

2013-01-06T08:05:00.001+00:00

Concentrating on the league.

3 things to look out for in the Football League

2012-11-30T10:13:00.002+00:00

I spend a lot of time reading the Guardian sport blogs which is completely dominated by Premier League coverage. As a fan of Burnley, a Championship club, this is frustrating as I think the Football League deserves more respect from the national press. What makes this more frustrating is the fact that most of that Premier League coverage is comprised of disgraceful stories of racism and allsorts of reprehensible behaviour, as opposed to actual football.
So I decided to take a swipe at this culture by posting this article in a bid to highlight the qualities of the Football league and to spark debate on the subject. So here goes

1.THE Derby. Burnley v B@#$*$@d's. It's a wise decision to have this at 12.30 on a Sunday, as generally our fans tend to go and smash the town up win, loose or draw. Crazy decision not to televise it though. I mean, this and the Bolton game on the opening day, were made for TV, especially with all the soap opera goings-on used to hype Premier League games.
2.Another Derby, of sorts. Huddersfield v Dirty Leeds. Lots of local pride at stake, and profesional pride too, with Simon Grayson taking on former club and all round nice guy Ken Bates.
3.Crystal Palace v Brighton. Geographically not a prime candidate for a Derby, but there's a rivalry there for sure, and both teams can play a bit. Good match on the cards methinks. And, if nothing else, the press conferemces will be interesting.

If I'm honest, I've picked a bad weekend to do this as it's an FA cup weekend and League One and most of League Two are busy with that. But I think the three points I've picked out can spark a little bit of debate.

What are you looking forward too?

Another New Manager

2012-11-24T15:28:00.001+00:00

Well, it seems Burnley Football Club has yet another new manager. I am personally quite impressed that the Burnley board decided on Sean Dyche in the end. By all accounts he was doing a decent job at Watford beofre he had to make way for Gianfranco Zola. I think its a really forward thinking decision by the Burnley board to bring in another young, up and coming manager. Firstly they are usually cheaper and are more willing to take the job. Secondly, any experienced manager is usually out of a job for a reason and (Brian Laws anyone?) will probably expect a higher salary than their younger counterparts.

So Sean has has mixed ressults in his first few games for Burnley, although back to back wins and a win over (dirty) Leeds is always going to count in his favour. Today, Burnley have a winnable game against Hull at the KC stadium, but I wouldn't be surprised if we lost. I'd be happy with a draw, exstatic with a wiatsn.

My money is on Middlebrough to win at home to Bristol City. 15 pence to be exact, and 9 pence on MK Dons. I didn't see any bankers in the Premier League today, the Chelsea game could go either way and QPR might have a bit of new manager bounce now they've got rid of Hughes for Harry Redknapp.

Thats all for now, come on you Clarets!

Parking Collection Services

2012-02-03T15:16:00.002+00:00

A company called Parking Collection Services sent me a letter last week demanding the sum of £40 for a PCN that had been placed on my car. The PCN was allegedly placed on my car as a result of being parked in a car park longer than the permitted time. Firstly, I have never been to the car park in question (it is in Scotland and I live in West Yorkshire) and secondly I won't pay.
I have had experience of these types of companies before. They 'manage' car parks for various places like hospitals, colleges and retail parks. They issue a PCN (when issued by one of these companies this stands for Parking Charge Notice) which is intended to look like the Penalty Charge Notices which can only be issued by the Police or Council (the Government, basically). A lot of people fall for it and pay immediatley on receipt of a PCN or a letter claiming their vehicle was issued with a PCN and asking why they haven't paid yet. The letters and PCN are often worded so that if you don't pay immediatley you will have to pay an even larger sum or risk legal action.
It's all a load of crap. The PCN's are effectively invoices, and invalid ones at that as they don't have a real postal address but a PO box number. If you get one, ignore it.

Well that was a little off topic but I felt I had to get it off my chest.
If you need more info go to moneysavingexpert and you will see there are lots of people who have had these companies pestering them.

As for the Clarets, quite a good week. No-one bought J-Rod which is good and we're better than Leeds still.

Burnley are better than Leeds - Update

2012-01-16T22:13:00.001+00:00

In my last post I set out my goal to prove that Burnley Football Club is better than Leeds Utd Football Club, using scientific statistical analysis. In the past week I began the huge undertaking of building up a body of research stretching back into the very beginnings of this great game we call football. I was ready to compile spreadsheets, create graphs and charts, and generally waste my time in the name of getting one up one my colleagues who are 'dirty' Leeds fans. Fortunately the lovely people at Football365 have done all that work for me and you can see clearly here that Burnley are better than Leeds.
As Leeds fans are a desperate breed, they will say that this table is flawed insofar as Burnley have been around for longer and therefore have had more time to score goals and so on. I don't give a toss. In my book as Burnley was founded in 1882 and Leeds in 1919 we were far better than Leeds for 37 years. They didn't even exist. You can't get much worse than that.
I have one particularly obnoxious colleague who had a bit of a go at me in my guise as a Burnley fan the other day. In defence of a couple of 'jokes' I pointed out that Burnley won the league before Leeds even existed (not strictly true but he knew no better). He came back with the old 'But you've never played in the Champions League' chestnut, which I smashed out of there with 'Burnley were the third English club to compete in the European Cup, knob-head'. The annoying this is they go on about the Champions League like they just got knocked out by Barcelona last week. They haven't qualified for the CL for 12 (twelve) years! They were in League One three years ago! Burnley had won the league twice before Leeds won their first title (of three, ever. One more than us, woop-de-doo). In fact, Leeds haven't won a great deal more than us. They've never won the Third or Fourth Division, we have. Fact. And Leeds will never win the Anglo-Scottish Cup or the Ferencvaros Vase.
So there you have it. Conclusive proof that Burnley are better than Leeds. And if that wasn't enough, or you need something more up to date then check this out:

Npower Championship standings as of 15/01/12

10	Burnley	26	6	39
11	Leeds	26	3	39

In your face Leeds. In your face.

Burnley are better than Leeds - Discuss

2012-01-04T15:19:00.002+00:00

It is my to prove that Burnley are better than Leeds. I will some research into this ( I will look at wikipedia) before I come to a conclusion. Obviously, the result yesterday has inspired me to look into this as a project, but as regular readers will know I live and work in Leeds, around lotsof Leeds fans so I need some facts to hit them with the next time we lose to them.

Proving Burnley are better than Leeds

So how do you judge betterness (I know it's not a word)? I think we can discard cup competitions as they are more down to luck than anything. Who is the best team at the end of a season? Usually the one on top of the league. So how do we apply this to the argument in question? Well...

I will take each teams league position at the end of each season completed to date and allocate a number to that position based on the proximity to the top or bottom of the league, treating all four divisions as one linear table. For example, last year Man Utd would get 92 points, Chelsea 91 and so on. Once these scores have been allocated I will then take an average (mean) and the higher the figure, the better the team. Simples?
NO. I will have to use a different total for years where there were fewer leagues and teams of which there are many. This will be fiddly.
But Leeds didn't exist until 1919, joining the FL in 1920 so this might skew the figure a bit. I'll work something out, and see what happens.
Anyway, best get started.

Lionel Messi has to go...

2011-12-29T12:51:00.001+00:00

The clarets got the festive football period off to a great start on Boxing day by beating Doncaster Rovers 3 - 0. Results appear to be a bit more consistent of late, having won 5 of our last 6 games, the only aberration being the last minute defeat to Pompey, who I hate along with their bells. We might just have to right games against them off.
So our form has gone from losing games we should win (ie home games to 'weaker' teams) and wining games we should lose. Having beaten Donny, a 'weaker' team, lets hope we can keep beating better teams or teams in good form starting with Hull on New Years Eve. Then we really need to get off to a good start in 2012 by beating Leeds at Elland Road. I have mentioned before, I work with several Leeds fans and I'd rather like it if we beat them. Just once.
On another subject, I am spending Christmas with family in Spain and the other day my wife and I were wandering round the compulsory 'old town' and we popped our heads into the medieval church. It's a beautiful building complete with bullet holes as a reminder of the civil war. There was a great nativity scene with a man pooing as is the Spanish tradition.

Even Messi has to go...

The music accompanying this religious scene was... "A Wombling Merry Christmas!". Jesus wishes you a Wombling Merry Christmas. Brilliant.
There was a woman at the front praying and everything. The next song was Mud's "Lonley this Christmas". Not as funny, but in the same ball park in my opinion. I'm hoping to come back at Easter to hear Leona Lewis belting out "Bleeding Love".

Burnley FC - Against all odds

2011-12-19T18:25:00.002+00:00

The Burnley FC team set off for their Npower Championship fixture at Brighton's brand spanking new Amex Stadium thinking "This will be hard work" as everyone knows Burnley are terrible away from home. Then, within 12 minutes of the kick-off, the Referee said "Actually chaps, it should be quite easy for you Burnley chaps against 9 men" as he sent off two Brighton players for no apparent reason. The Burnley players took umbrage to this and immediately set out to prove to the referee and the rest of the Npower Championship that it was, indeed going to be hard work to get a result against Gus Poyets men.

Kieran Trippier, the full-back on loan from Manchester City, briefly expressed and opinion to the contrary of the referee, the other Burnley players and Manager, Eddie Howe. Trippier put Burnley ahead on 32 minutes. It was at this time the old addage "It's sometimes harder to play against ten men" was brought out and dusted off and re-jigged to suit the occasion. Factor Burnley FC into that equation and you have 9 men battering the Clarets for the remainder of the game.

So, in the end, the Burnley team went home with all three points and their heads held high (kind of) safe in the knowledge that they could overcome any numerical advantage and not score a hat-load of goals against nine men for an hour.

It was indeed hard work.

Come on you Clarets!

West Ham 1 - Burnley 2

2011-12-04T17:56:00.001+00:00

As many of you may know, the Clarets beat West Ham yesterday at Upton Park. This was the third win in as many games, two of which came (wait for it) away from home, and at home we also kept (another unusual term coming up) a clean sheet. So now we will probably lose at home to Portsmouth. I hate Portsmouth and their flaming bells.
The edge was taken off our win over the Hammers by the commentator on the Football League Show calling Chris McCann Grant. No-one bats an eyelid about this. It's such a basic mistake, there should be a full apology on the news.
Lets imagine what would happen if they said Arthur Van Persie or Steve Rooney on Match of the Day.
I expect better from the BBC. Bow your heads in shame.
BTW Grant McCann plays for Peterborough. I bet Adrian Durham would have got his name right.

Hull City v Burnley Match Report

2011-11-26T20:17:00.001+00:00

Hull took a two goal lead today and threw it away... er, well like Chelsea.
Incidentally Hull's shirts are inspired by the skin colour of former manger Phil Brown.
Anyway, back to the Burnley game. I checked the score after about 15 minutes and was chuffed to bits to see that the Clarets were already a goal behind, scored after 11 minutes by Matty Fryatt. It also pleased me to see that we were two goals down after 55 minutes, Fryatt again with the goal. These days I lose optimism if we are two behind so I stopped checking the score till after the final whistle. I checked then to make sure we had conceded again after 66, 77 and 88 minutes. I thought 99 was even a possibility but I was denied my O.C.D. triumph by the Clarets amazing comeback, winning 2-3 with J-Rod scoring the winner in the 93rd minute. Oh well, better luck next time.
I'm pleased we won though. I'm also glad Leeds lost too. And Rovers.
So to the next game, which is at home to Ipswich on Tuesday night. We're up to 16th now, and if we beat the Tractor boys we can go joint 12th (if Peterborough, Reading, Barnsley and Derby all lose, which can't happen because Reading take on Peterborough at home so forget I said that).

Slight change of topic now. I thought I'd share some memories of the glory days when we were Division Three Champions (League One for our younger readers). Here is a newspaper clipping of showing Martin Dobson collecting the throphy from the then Football League Senior Vice Chairman Mr Dick Wragg.

Get it? Dick Wragg? Just me then?

Well on a serious note, what's going on with Gary Barlow's suits?

Burnley sign striker

2011-11-18T21:05:00.001+00:00

According to the BBC Sport website the clarets have signed the striker Sam Vokes on loan from Wolves. It looks like he will be available for tomorrows clash with Leeds, where he was on loan a couple of years ago. Lets hope the old 'scores against former club' prophecy will fulfil itself for us in front of the BBC cameras tomorrow.
As I live and work in Leeds I got some 'ribbing' from Leeds fans when we lost both games to them last season. And they are generally quite arrogant about their history, and ignorant to other club's history.
For example, I might make a lighthearted comment about being a founder member of the football league, to which a Leeds fan might come back with something about how many trophies they have won. I think to myself "Well, Leeds should have won more. It's the country's fifth largest city and only has one professional football club." Then I thought "Exactly how much more have Leeds won than Burnley?"
So I checked it out. They've only won the League once more than us, we're equal on FA Cups and they've won the league cup. I think the Community/Charity Shield is a bit Mickey Mouse so I won't count that one. We won it outright once and "shared" it once, and Leeds have won it twice. But the fact that it was shared says to me that it's not a proper trophy. That and the fact that it used to be a game between a professional team and an amateur side. That leaves the UEFA of Eurpoean Fairs Cup which Leeds have won twice. We were the third English club to ever compete in the European Cup as it was then. Then you have to take in to consideration the other competitions such as the lower divisions in the domestic league and the Anglo-Scottish Cup, and I think you'll find we are just ahead.

So, anyway, we have to win tomorrow. Have to.

Ups and downs

2011-11-05T09:06:00.000+00:00

Well we've had a mixture this week. Beaten in the League Cup by Cardiff, then a great home win in front of the Sky TV cameras against local rivals Blackpool. And finally after having had expectations lifted by that win we get brought back down to earth by losing to Leicester at home.
On the upsidem however, Leeds then got batterd 5-0 at home by Blackpool which gave me an opprtinity to slate all the Leeds fans I work with, which is always a bonus.
I had a couple of bets on the midweek football as well, two accumulators which both lost. I only had £2 on them though. The Wednesday one I had 7 fixtures, 6 of which I got right but Man City went and won in Villareal when I had them down for a draw. Curses!
So we are away at Bristol City this weekend. They are in the bottom three so on paper we should get something out of the game, but I shall remain pessimistic as we tend not to do well in that neck of the woods.
I have recently started following some of the Burnley players on twitter, like Charlie Austen, Marvin Bartley and Chris McCann and I was interested to find that they like to watch Celebrity Juice. I also like CJ and now feel like I have something in common with the players. They also went to Alton Towers the day after the Blackpool game. I would have gone to the Pleasure Beach after that game!

Right I'm of to put a bet on the weekend football. Wich me luck!

Bad week for Burnley

2011-10-22T14:34:00.000+01:00

What a bad week for Burnley, with two losses after a little run of good form. I think the very late goal against Reading will have had a detrimental effect on the teams confidence going into the Barnsley game, and we're not famed for our away form at the best of times. We need to get our heads up now and go into the game at Coventry with a positive attitude.
Burnley should be able to get something against Coventry who are one point behind us in the Npower Championship table, but with Burnley, you never know. Overall we have had the upper hand against them and the instability and lack of funds has affected them at the start of the season but that can work in their favour as the team generates a 'backs to the wall' mentality and they showed a glimpse of that as they grabbed a last gasp equalizer against Leeds in midweek.
So I will keep my fingers crossed for a win which would lift Burnley up to 15th in the table (depending on results) and put us in a good frame of mind for the League Cup tie against Cardiff.
Nearly kick-off time now so all that remains to say is...

Come on you clarets!!!

Burnley v Reading Preview

2011-10-15T08:01:00.001+01:00

So, today Burnley FC take on Reading FC at Turf Moor in the NPower Championship. Both teams have hit their best form of the season with three wins and a draw in their last four games. We are also level on points with Reading so this promises to be a close encounter.
I hope we can build on the last game, a 1-0 win at Milwall, which was also our first clean sheet in living memory! Being at home you would think we might have the edge over the Royals, and our strikers are in good form of late, Charlie Austin and Jay Rodriguez scoring 15 between them in all competitions. But Brian McDermott seems to be a pretty astute manager and an away win wouldn't surprise me. In fact a win would be a very good result for us and would have taken us up to 11th in the table if Leeds hadn't won last night. It would also give the players some confidence going into the next two game which are both away at Barnsley and Coventry.
So lets hope Eddie Howe is getting to grips with life at Turf Moor and can turn it into the fortress it usually is, and a few away wins wouldn't go amiss either.
The Burnley supporters have a big part to play in this match too. It's too early in Eddie Howes' reign as Burnley Manager to be getting on his back and I think most Burnley fans appreciate that and the recent turn around in form should mean that we're in good voice today and that will help the players.
I predict a 2-0 win, as I'd like us to start keeping clean sheets more frequently but I'd be very happy with 2-1 and I think Reading have a good chance of scoring against us. It's all about the timing of the goals then.
Come on you clarets!

Burnley Forest Match Report?

2011-09-28T20:59:00.001+01:00

When I started this Burnley blog I thought I'd listen to every game live on the radio and write a match report of every game. As I have become a father since then I have had very little time and being a Burnley fan has taken a backseat. Add that to the fact that last season under Brian Laws you never knew what you were going to get so my inerest in Burnley FC waned further. I had (intentinally) low expectations for the second half of the season when Eddie Howe was appointed Burnley manager, and the relative lack of activity in the transfer market over the summer blunted enthusiasm further still. Since then we have managed to get a few players in like Zavon Hines and Junior Stanislas, but performances in the league have been poor.
But last night the season really started for us as we got our first home win of the season against a Nottingham Forest side lacking in confidence. Eddie Howe's men really put Steve McLaren under pressure by beating them 5-1 at Turf Moor, with a goal from Jay Rodriguez after 5 minutes and a half-time score of 4-0.
The best thing about the result for me was the fact that all the strikers were on the scoresheet, Charlie Austin is starting to look like the player we signed and I'm glad he's over his injury. And another two goals for J-Rod.
I was, like most Burnley fans, looking forward to reading the papers today (online of course) butI was disappointed to see that Carlos Tevez has stolen all the headlines by refusing to play. And the few sites that were mentioning us were focusing on the fact that Steve McLaren could be out of a job if Forests' poor run continues.
On a different subject, the 'debate' on Talksport the other day was "Should football clubs play music during the game?". This was all brought up due to Norwich playing some song or other when they scored against Sunderland. The gist of it was that if your club plays music when you score you're 'small-time', but if you're a big club you don't need music to create an atmosphere. As usual Durham was winding the callers up.

2011-09-22T15:12:00.000+01:00

I have a sneaky feeling we will draw either Crystal Palace (already beaten us this season) or Aldershot (bound to beat us, humiliatingly) in the next round of the Carling cup.
Anyway, paddypower have us at 2/1 to win against Southampton this weekend,with them at 5/4 and 12/5 the draw. That's what I would call sitting on the fence. I would say we are favourites to lose. But what do I know?

2011-09-21T10:17:00.000+01:00

Well, at least we're in the draw for the next round. Who will it be? Man Utd? Arsenal?
Who knows. We'll have to play better though.
The draw will take place on Saturday and will be live on Sky Sports (news maybe).
Then later in the afternoon we can loose at home to Southampton.

Up for the cup???

2011-09-18T09:46:00.002+01:00

Well, I'm enjoying a little holiday in Spain at the moment, but I am far from happy with the results we are getting.
Although it it's good to have got an away win, just some other wins as well.
Next game in the Carling Cup, against MK Dons will either be an embarrassing defeat or we will scrape through and draw another Championship or bottom Premeir League side.
Then we can 'concentrate on the league' until January.

Early Season Optimism

2011-08-14T08:31:00.000+01:00

Well I thought we might have beaten Watford, but as usual you can't rely on Burnley to win, ever.
At least we got going against Burton in the Coscutter Cup in midweek. 4 goals for J-Rod.
Not really enough transfer business for my liking, but there's time yet.
I watched Match of The Day last night. What is Joey Barton doing with his hair? Is he trying to look like a pantomime villain? I'm not surprised Gervinho (?) clocked him. I would be tempted!
Hopefully this time next week we'll have a win on the board.

round -up

2011-07-16T09:57:00.000+01:00

So, no major transfer news to speak of. Just that Clarke Carlyle is going to Preston Nob End for a season long loan, and we have signed Ben Mee from Man City, on loan as well I think.

Boring.

Great Burnley Managers

2011-07-09T10:05:00.002+01:00

I came across this excellent article yesterday and I thought I would share it with you.
I read the Guardian sports blog quite a lot and it's not very often we get any recognition so the more hits it gets the more likely they are to have more of the same.

Chris McCann Stays at Burnley

2011-07-02T12:01:00.000+01:00

At last some kind of activity in the transfer market. Like I said, kind of.

I think this is worthy of mention though and in these lean times keeping McCann is almost the same as buying someone good. I am suprised at how little activity there has been in the transfer market so far this summer, with the exception of the Premier League clubs. Maybe once they have sorted themselves out the rest of us can get on with it.
Also good to hear that Martin Paterson is staying at Turf Moor too.

Check again soon for more all time greats...

Top Ten All-Time Burnley Players 3

2011-06-25T13:43:00.000+01:00

Number three has to be the one and only... David Eyres.
In that 1994 promotion season Eyresy was the top goal scorer with something like 27 and looking at wikipedia shows that he only score 37 in his Burnley career.
One of the ony away games I've attended was towards the end of that season, away at his former club Blackpool. As I've mentioned in other posts, we were dreadful away from home that season and we needed a win to stay in with a chance of the play-offs. The game was originally scheduled for Boxing Day but the pitch at Bloomfield Road was frozen and the fixture was re-arranged for sometime in spring (March/April I think. It was a nice sunny day). I had planned to go to the game on a coach with some lads from the pub (the General Gordon in Nelson) but as the game was postponed I stayed in the pub all day, winning at 'killer' on the pool table and someone pressed some buttons on a fruit machine for me and I won on that too! Quite a good day all in all.
When the re-arranged fixture came around I went on the official supporters club coach which started from the Burnley bus station, which in those days had a pound coin glued to the floor outside the information kiosk as a hilarious joke!
Bloomfield road was one of the worst grounds I've been to. The away fans were accommodated in a terrace down the long side of the pitch towards one end. The floor of this terrace was below pitch level so if you stood at the front, due to the drainage curve of the pitch you couldn't see the ball when it was on the far touchline. The good thing about the ground was the girders which were a lovely orange colour (rust) to match the home sides kit.
Eyres was captain that day as (Steve Davis I think) was suspended or injured and we ran out 2-1 winners. Eyres played a blinder and I think he even scored as well.

Top Ten All-Time Burnley Players 2

2011-06-13T15:07:00.000+01:00

Well you have to put 'Super' John Francis in don't you? He was very similar to Shaun Wright-Phillips, in that he would kick and run at the defenders to little or no effect. But it did have an effect once. Back in that play-off season, we'd been held 0-0 at home to Plymouth and we thought we'd blown it because we were rubbish away all that season (how times change, not). I was listening to Radio Lancashire whilst watching the Champions League Final with the sound off. We went 1-0 down and I was thinking were dead and buried. But John Francis came to the rescue with two goals, Warren Joyce sealing the win.

Here are the highlights from that game...

During that season there was a photo of Francis over two pages of the Matchday programme with the caption
'John Francis makes the number 14 shirt his own.'
Now this was in the days of teams playing in numbers 1-11. The number 14 was usually the second outfield substitute, not really something you would want to make 'your own' . Made me laugh at the time.