Story of the Season: Burnley

By Matt Kellett | 5th May 2010

Story of the Season: Burnley | read this item

It was nearly one year ago when Burnley won promotion at Wembley with that stunning goal from Wade Elliott. Burnley fans had flags with the words ‘Owen Coyle is God’ proudly displayed. They had got to the Carling Cup semi-final with some impressive results and they were playing like a Premiership team! Things, however, have changed dramatically since then.

The first game of the season came after a long summer for the fans, marking their first game in the Premier League for 33 years. That match didn’t go to plan as they lost 2-0 to a strong Stoke team. Then came one moment which Burnley fans will remember forever – a 1-0 victory over a full strength Manchester United squad at Turf Moor with a save from the penalty spot after Wayne Rooney was brought down. Another impressive result followed in similar circumstances as the Clarets beat Everton 1-0 and Louis Saha’s penalty was saved by Brian Jensen who must have been enjoying his Premier League games.

It wasn’t a fair first five games for Burnley because after the Manchester United and Everton matches they had to play Chelsea and Liverpool away. In those two games they conceded seven goals, losing 3-0 and 4-0 to potential champions. Another home win against Sunderland followed by a 5-0 battering at Tottenham showed a pattern as it seemed that they struggled away and played well at home.

October started with a win at home to Birmingham before they had to visit their arch enemies Blackburn at Ewood Park. A close game saw Rovers win 3-2. It got worse for Burnley fans as they witnessed their first defeat at home against Wigan. Memories of that loss were erased when Hull came to Turf Moor, winning 2-0 against the team that had survived on the final day in the 2008/09 season.

In November they started brilliantly with a 3-3 draw at Manchester City, who had players like Robinho, Emmanuel Adebayor, and Carlos Tevez in their side that day. Aston Villa made the trip to Burnley next and it was a 1-1 draw. After that game a Burnley fan said, “I think if we improved our away form we could get into Europe.” How wrong could he be? A 5-3 defeat at Upton Park made it two points out of three games in the November.

A 2-0 defeat became a fashionable away result in December. Burnley lost to that scoreline in all of their three away matches at Portsmouth, Wolves, and Everton. Meanwhile, at home 1-1 was the fashion, drawing with teams like Arsenal, Fulham, and Bolton. Burnley’s form was slowly getting worse.

On the 8th of January 2010 Owen Coyle left Burnley to join Bolton. This was a big moment as his replacement was no other than the manager who has taken Sheffield Wednesday to the bottom of the Championship this season, Brian Laws. The ex-Burnley player was no one’s favorite and that appointment proved costly as he only won two games in charge out of seventeen.

Brian Laws’ first game in charge was a 3-0 defeat at Manchester United. Defeats against Bolton and Chelsea made it a winless month in the Premier League!

Law’s first win in charge came against West Ham, a 2-1 win which may well be their last in the Premier League this season. Four straight defeats saw the Clarets scoring four goals and conceding 13, including five away at Aston Villa and three at Fulham. There were also losses against Portsmouth and Arsenal.

March was another bad month with Burnley gaining only one point out of a possible fifteen. A 1-1 draw at home to Stoke made most fans hate Owen Coyle even more with most suggesting it was his fault they went down. Poor performances in winnable games cost them big time, and defeats against Wolves and Wigan didn’t matter when it came to derby day. Martin Olsson ran into the penalty box and blatantly dived. Blackburn scored the resulting penalty in a game that was won by cheating.

The game which saw fans leaving after seven minutes started off April – the 6-1 loss at home to Manchester City. They were 3-0 down inside seven minutes and 4-0 down after 20. The game was played in the second half on a pitch that was filled with water. The Burnley coaching staff appealed to the fourth official to abandon the game but Burnley seemed to be coping well on it so they were just ignored. The sixth goal came on 58 minutes but Burnley did manage to get a consolation through a good strike from Steven Fletcher. News broke after the game that Clarets midfielder Kevin McDonald had watched the match in a nearby pub after being subbed at half-time. He was fined for his behavior.

Brian Laws got the response he wanted and a week after the City result they went to relegation rivals Hull and destroyed them 4-1. That result was not enough and after a defeat a Sunderland they had to beat Liverpool to have any chance of staying up, but they lost 4-0 and were relegated back to the Championship.

This was certainly a roller-coaster season for Burnley, who know what it’s like to once again play in one of the hardest leagues in the world. The fans can’t blame Owen Coyle because looking at their results before he left, they were not much better than Laws’.

Player of the Season: Steven Fletcher

Top Scorer: Steven Fletcher

Most Assists: Tyrone Mears

Season Rating: 4 – They’ve had their season in the big time. Shame they had to go down but their second half of the season was awful. They earn a four because of their first half of the season. The fans really helped the players. If they can keep their star players then they could be back in the 2011/12 season.

What did you make of Burnley’s season? Let us know below!

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Story of the Season: Burnley

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