Burnley coyled and ready

Tuesday, 26 May 09, 01:51 PM · Comments(4)

By Michael Sinnerton

Oh to hell with it. I was going to leave the Burnley blog until later in the summer but it’s time to jump on the bandwagon: Owen Coyle is a genius. Having sold what at the time were arguably the clubs two best players, Andy Gray and Kyle Lafferty, Burnley fans could have been forgiven for going into the season with no little trepidation. As it is Coyle formed a close-knit squad who seem to have a great mentality (as Robbie Blake put it “You have to be in the dressing room to believe how much togetherness we have”) as well as plenty of flair and ability.

It is this attacking flair and will to go forward that has endeared Burnley to so many neutrals this season, as well as their notable cup progress. Coyle seems to know only one way to play, players like Blake, Wade Elliott and Chris Eagles forage forward at will to support Martin Paterson and Stephen Thompson but their ethic is such that they work back to win the ball, helping out the evergreen Graham Alexander (7 play-offs, finally 1 victory) and Chris McCann.

Brian Jensen, nicknamed The Beast by the Burnley faithful, has had a fantastic season and Burnley have benefited from a relatively injury free campaign at the back. A campaign that may have been looked back on fondly, had the play-offs been the end, has been transformed into the best in a quarter of a century. Superb cup runs, including victories over West Brom, Fulham, Arsenal and Chelsea culminating in a devastating last-minute semi-final defeat to Spurs but Burnley weren’t to be denied their trip to Wembley.

An average attendance of 13,000 at Turf Moor shows that the club is by no means the biggest but whenever I’ve been to the ground the locals have been pretty boisterous and the team has played football the right way. 61 games is one hell of a season and for it to be done at a club with one of the lowest wage bills in the Championship (now the lowest in the Premiership) and with just 23 players is really a phenomenal achievement.

The realism can come another day, who cares if they stay up, for a season in the sun I think 80,000 inhabitants might just say “Ee i ee i o, up the football league we go!”

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