The game against Rotherham marked the halfway stage of the season and sees the Clarets lying in 13th position amongst a whole host of “nearly” clubs on a narrow band of points, only six points between 8th placed Rotherham and Walsall in 18th.
So far, it's been a very strange season. Under Stan, Burnley sides have always had at least a decent start: even in his first season in charge we were lower mid-table, which, under the circumstances, was not a bad achievement. Since those days we have started pretty well out of the blocks, peaking with the tremendous opening last season when we probably occupied the top slot more than any other club. This year the Clarets looked badly affected by the ITV Digital gloom, and the statement of the obvious that everyone was for sale and the Beresford/Broomes farce played its full part in the ensuing pre-season chaos, culminating in one of the worst Burnley performances I’ve seen for a long time on the opening day. Basically they were not ready for the start of the season and Stan’s very public and fairly uncharacteristic lambasting of the team and certain individuals was not a good sign. The fact Brighton had to wait 13 games for their next win indicates just how poor this performance was. Just when they needed to get the public on their side to support them, the players and manager turned in a pathetic performance. This was a massive own goal and the timing could not have been worse.
I must admit that it affected me quite badly, I felt really cheated, and it was this opening day fiasco that made me think twice and decline a relatively easy trip logistically to Derby. As it turned out, this result characterised the season. The Clarets have often won games they were not expected to win only to lose games they were expected to get a positive result. At the moment they are completely unpredictable. My theory is that with his “small” squad - actually it's about the same size as the squad on its entry to the First Division - the team are entering matches with at least one or two players who are not fully fit. Stan would rather play crocks or old fogies than youngsters from the reserves, even though he stated he is “not frightened” of doing this, implying that the rest of us should be. This translates into: better to have the likes of Armstrong, Jeppo and Ellis on hand than Maylett, Lee or Mullin.
The concept of reserves seems to have gone out of the window as there seem to be no reserve team matches, and Stan never plays any first team squad members on the odd occasion one takes place. Therefore youngsters lose the opportunity to learn from senior players, and senior players not in the side cannot maintain match fitness.
Additionally the centre-back positions have been a bit of a revolving door job all season with Cox and Davis injured and Arthur and McGregor suspended on occasions. All good sides have a consistent centre-back pairing: Pender/Davis; Thomson/Waldron; Pallister/Bruce; Hansen/Lawrenson; Beattie/Hunter; or “bacon and eggs” as Bobby Robson once called them. Davis is a worry: if he is always coming back from injury he is never going to get truly match fit. Certainly he has been in and out of the side for about a year now and Stan needs to field the same centre-back pairing as often as possible through to the end of the season. I think the aborted signing of Broomes and the recent loan to Stalybridge of Earl Davis are all part of the same scenario in this respect.
Having said this, I would like the Clarets to revert to three at the back with Cox, McGregor and Arthur as a central three. This thought is partially fuelled by the solid look about the side we had when we first started playing again in this division (and how badly we miss the brilliant defensive skills of Mitchell Thomas), and the other strand to this thinking is that as defenders I don’t really think our full-backs are too clever. West and Branch would be much better pushed up as wing backs and we would be more solid in the midfield area where we look particularly vulnerable. Strength in numbers might negate individual or collective loss of grip in this area.
The midfield area is where we are the most bereft, and one wonders about the state of fitness of Paul Weller, who had such a great first season in this division, but has subsequently disappointed on too many occasions. I think ideally Stan would love to field two wingers every week, to give them width, but I don’t think we have a defence strong enough with a 4-4-2 line-up to cope with this exposure down the flanks when playing both Alan Moore and Super Glen. Myself I am very sceptical about Alan Moore. He is either injured or coming back from injury, gets his big chance with a start, and then blows it. I wonder the last time he was either fit enough, or showed sufficient form, to last a full ninety minutes. Furthermore I thought he bottled his two openings at Watford recently - after shooting wide on the first attempt he passed the buck by crossing to Ian Moore for the second of his clear-cut openings. Either that or his decision-making is not good. For me he is a very disappointing player, and contributes fitfully - perhaps when he feels like it, or maybe he doesn’t know how to get involved. Yet Stan seems to give him lots of chances in relation to his contribution in comparison to say Maylett, who hardly gets any.
The other enigma is Tony Grant, who either plays really well or badly. Against Brighton he was bloody awful, and should have been shot, never mind substituted; however at Watford recently he played his full part in a good performance and even got on the end of a couple of shooting opportunities. Somehow he seems to lack that much-bandied about word “character” to dominate the midfield area. I am not sure that when Grant is in the side he brings the best out of Taylor, as he is looking to put the ball into people’s feet and he has the slide rule passing skills to do it. At times, but definitely not all the time, he seems to be unable to “dig in” when the going gets tough. However I remember a very strong performance against Palace at Selhurst last season when he looked like he had got the lot. More than any other player I think the Man City result might have taken the wind out of his sails, when he contributed several telling passes to Benarbia and Berkovic in midfield to set City on their way to their morale-destroying 5–1 whacking of the Clarets.
Up front, I am a big admirer of Gareth Taylor. The lad battles for every ball by fair means or foul and is as wholehearted a player ever to pull on the claret jersey, if not the most adept with his feet. Interestingly Willie Morgan said that he is one of the best headers of the ball he had ever seen, and he used to play with Denis Law and Andy Lochhead and against the likes of Jeff Astle, Mick Jones, Joe Royle, etc, so this is some compliment. I wonder if this is more of an indictment regarding our wide players or perhaps a more general comment on the demise of wing play; which one I am not sure - probably a bit of both. Nonetheless the fact is that the rest of them don’t set up Golden Nut as much as they should. "Feed the Nut and he will score” should be the motto, but the increasing influence of Blake and the tendency of Little and Grant to indulge in bouts of short tight passing and movement actually nullifies our biggest weapon, Gareth’s bonce.
Therefore, much as I love Big Gareth, methinks the time has come to give Dimi the Greek a proper run in either one of the forward slots, partnered with either Blake or Moore with Gareth coming on late on. The lad can head it and he can also shoot, he is quick, and he would be more suited to the type of game the Clarets are currently trying to play. I also think that it's the only way you can play our two most dangerous players in the side, Blake and Little, in the same team. Unless Dimi is given a run soon we will never know if he is any good or not, and we will have another Alan Lee scenario who, since he has left Burnley, matured into a regular First Division goal scorer.
Whatever way you cut the cards, we have reached halfway and Stan still does not really know what his strongest side is, and neither do we, although he looks closer to it than at the beginning. On a positive note, Branchy has at last stuck it up the critics and apparently was the only player to come out of the game with much credit on Saturday, McGregor has been a good “find”, and Blake has started paying some of his fee back, and has turned out to be more useful than a “one-legged Morris dancer” after all. Beresford has performed well, but his refusal to sign a long-term contract indicates that he is angling for a move back to the Premiership, despite his stated wish to play regular first team football. Nonetheless despite beating Spurs, Norwich, Forest and Leicester our position is about right, as these results can be balanced out against those vs Brighton, Grimsby, Bradford and Saturday’s fiasco. However one of the worst results of late was at Watford, where we dominated the proceedings for all but twenty minutes, but still managed to lose to a very average side. This is not a good sign: playing badly and losing is acceptable, but playing well and losing is just inept.
Sadly there appears to be a growing hard core of nutters, more interested in kicking seven bells out of the opposition supporters rather than sharing a friendly pint with them before or after the game, who have latched on to the club, or perhaps they have always been lurking around. The London Clarets do their best to advocate the broadening of mind associated with travel, which I guess is to be expected as most of us have moved out of those claustrophobic and somewhat introspective valleys. Speaking as an exile, an increasing minority of those left behind look to be stuck in some kind of timewarp of gratuitous violence to be inflicted on any potential “invaders” of their territory, and view an away trip with the same relish as the Vikings on their travels in the Dark Ages, summed up by the “No One Likes Us" anthem, which identifies with the worst aspect of the Capital City sub culture.
My first reaction was shame and embarrassment when Ray Stubbs announced the death of the 17-year-old Forest fan on the FA Cup programme. This turned to sorrow at the loss of life through pursuing an interest from which over the years I personally have gained such pleasure. Having lived for a year in Nottingham during the European Championship era, and played football with them in the Notts Sunday leagues, I know that the ordinary decent folk there love their football as much as anyone. The real tragedy is that football-loving communities have much more to share than divide them, and perhaps through BFCLSC, especially in this era of modern communication, we could look at more shared pre-match activities with our fellow fans and set a good example for youngsters to follow rather than allow them to be seduced by the manipulators of trouble. Somehow we must find a way to rise above the tribal nature of supporting a football team, without compromising the passion engendered and without sounding as sanctimonious as a Songs of Praise meeting. People need reminding at all levels of the game that football is a sport, but the business and social pressures seem to be distorting this concept.
To conclude: I am looking for a top half of the table finish, and personally I would be well satisfied with this outcome, given the current financial circumstances and the very limited room for manoeuvre shaped by the lack of funds and Stan’s previous reliance on wheeling and dealing in the transfer market system to freshen up the team. Let's get 50 points in the bank a.s.a.p., crack on from there and see where it takes us.
Merry Christmas to all Clarets and fellow football supporters everywhere.
