Editorial
Issue 141
About a year ago, I opened an editorial by doubting the wisdom of a
self-imposed magazine schedule which saw us sending the copy to the printers with one game
left to play and our fate still undecided. One year later, it looked for all the world
like that might happen again. As we know, that didn’t come to pass, but the fact that
we were ever even forced to take the play-offs seriously is an extraordinary one. Having
won promotion last season a year ahead of schedule, we very nearly did something we really
weren’t supposed to do this year. With one game to go as I write, we are going to
finish at most a handful of points, a few places and a couple of wins away from a tilt at
a return to the top flight football we surrendered 25 years ago. This is an immense
achievement, particularly when you consider that our last two upward trips to this level
have resulted in immediate relegation. I look back on my predictions of a dour struggle to
maintain our status of last August with some embarrassment now. It’s way exceeded our
expectations, and if you don’t take your hats off now for Stan, Barry and the lads,
then you never will.
It has already taken on cliché status, but I still don’t think it
can be repeated too often: this has been a fantastic season. I didn’t actively
support Burnley as a child, only beginning to go to matches in the late 80s, so this is
easily the highest position I have ever seen us finish in, but supporters of longer
standing than me can say the same. And all this in the season when we celebrated our 25th
anniversary in such fine style off the pitch. Good, isn’t it?
I could go on, but I hope we’ll offer more views on this season gone
in the next issue.
It’s a little too early to look to next season, but it occurred to me
on the way back from Sheffield that our aim for 2001-02 should be to get to the play-offs
– in other words, to win a couple more games than we did this time. Given the last
two seasons have been exercises in surpassing the achievements of the year before,
you’d have to fancy our chances. Of course, it will never be easy, but I don’t
see that promotions and relegations are going to make the division any harder. That said,
there’s a danger that no one will underestimate us this season, and under Ternent
we’ve thrived when written off. This season was not without its unhappy moments,
proving that the balance between making sufficiently positive use of our attacking
resources and maintaining defensive rigour is sometimes an elusive one. As last season,
our good runs came when consistency at Turf Moor was met with enterprise away. That’s
the key to success. That, and ensuring the old stalwarts are phased out and replaced by
younger players of the same calibre while maintaining a healthy team spirit. All easier
said than done, but these days trust in the management seems less an act of faith than a
sensible choice.
This will be my last magazine editorial, as it’s Tim’s turn to
do the next one and I will be standing down at the AGM. It hasn’t been an easy
decision to make, as I have enjoyed working on the magazine, but a surfeit of other
commitments has made it increasingly difficult to keep the standard as high as I believe
our supporters deserve. This edition, in particular, has had a long and difficult
gestation, as is obvious when you look at the length of weeks that the articles cover. I'd
like to apologise to anyone whose carefully considered words I have made look out of date
by struggles with deadlines, and above all I would like to thank all who have contributed,
particularly the regulars and the match reporters, who have consistently given me the nice
problem of trying to fit everything in. I hope to be able to help whoever takes over by
contributing to the magazine when I can, and probably by maintaining the London Clarets
website for another season. Both magazine and website are nothing without your
contributions, so please keep them coming.
The next magazine will be out before our AGM. This is to be held on July
21 at the usual venue of the Sekforde Arms on Sekforde Street, Clerkenwell, with a one
o’clock kick off. Not only has this proved a consistently splendid way to spend an
afternoon, but it is your opportunity to vote for, and indeed put yourself forward for,
committee positions and have a say in the running of this club. I hope to see you there.
Firmo
May 2001
