Once again, it comes down to the last game of the season. And, once again, where we end the season is no longer in
our hands. Ah well, this is familiar territory. We’ve been here before. We know the ropes.
No one could say that being a Burnley supporter is boring.
It is, of course, fair to ask the question of how the hell it has come to this. Top at Christmas and in the
top six pretty much all season, what on earth has gone wrong for us to now be depending on results in other places
to make the play-offs? Our promotion form of 2001 has been replaced with nothing less than relegation form in 2002,
and that should make us worry. An interesting summer awaits us, with the renewal of an ageing squad on a limited budget
the mighty challenge Stan faces. Changes must bring about quick results, because if we take our bad form from the
second half of this season into the start of the next, we’re going to make life hard for ourselves.
There is a need for debate on what’s gone wrong since Christmas and, perhaps more to the point, what we need to
do to stop it, and it’s a debate I hope this website will play a part in hosting over the summer months.
But first there’s Sunday to consider. Despite everything, we can still make the play-offs, and if we do, we make
the season a qualified success. Having been here before, as supporters, we at least know what our role is. For ninety
minutes we need to shout and sing as loudly as we can. We need to urge and encourage our team to do the only thing
they can, and that’s to win, and win well. We should save the arguments for later. Reasoned discussion can wait.
Sunday is a time to be unreasonable.
And whatever you do, do it in Claret and Blue. Back the Clarets Mad campaign to make the three full sides of
Turf Moor a wall of Claret this Sunday.
Clarets Mad should be congratulated for their efforts to generate some atmosphere. It’s clear from the
correspondence we’ve received this season that the lack of atmosphere at Turf Moor concerns many of you greatly.
It is encouraging to see supporters themselves doing something about it - although it is disheartening to see the
lack of support for their efforts from local mainstream media.
So, get your Burnley shirt on and give it all you’ve got. We need the team to put their hearts into this game,
and we can only urge them to do so by our own example.
Of course, our record in such matches is extraordinary. On three recent occasions, when we’ve gone into that last
match needing a combination of a Burnley win and results elsewhere, we’ve got what we wanted. I felt we used up a
lifetime of luck in 1987, when we entered the last lap needing not just to succeed, but for others to fail, to do
no less than stay in the League. In the Orient Game we got the win, but crucially, Lincoln didn’t get theirs. I
thought we could never ask any more favours of the football gods, but in 1998, when a return to the basement loomed,
we beat Plymouth, while just as importantly, Bristol Rovers beat Brentford. Two years later, as we triumphed over
Scunthorpe, Wrexham beat Gillingham, and that sent us up. Amazing, isn’t it? Encouragingly, while we so often fluff
our lines when it matters at Turf Moor, two of the three were at home.
Given this, if Sunday is the moment when that run of fortune ends, we can hardly complain about it.
We’ll still be up on the deal. After the Orient Game, we’ll always be up on the deal.
Whatever happens, let us leave Turf Moor on Sunday knowing that, as supporters, we did everything we could to
make it happen. Then, if for once results elsewhere have gone against us, let’s start asking questions about our
season of two halves.
