Finally we’ve got our first away win of the season courtesy of Clarke Carlisle’s appearance on the Channel 4 show Countdown.
He’s a confessed fan of the show and apparently never misses an episode, and he steamrollered the opposition by 89 points to 55. Now, if only we can pass this kind of effort into our away form we’ll be okay 
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Well done Clarke, you’re a credit to Burnley Football Club.
Well, I wasn’t expecting to write that title a couple of weeks ago but alas the individual formerly known as ‘God’ has decided that he stands a better chance of staying in the Premier League with Bolton.
Bolton? Seriously?
He’s burnt, knocked down and destroyed a lot of bridges with the fans after continually speaking about loyalty towards the football club and supporters; who knows if he ever realised how much the football club meant to its fans. Reading between the lines it seems that he has gone due to a lack of budget at Burnley, something he would have known before signing a contract extension last year. We don’t live beyond our means and are doing fine by not over-stretching ourselves so I don’t see the need to do this just because a manager wants to get the chequebook out.
He’s already said to our chairman that he “would only leave Burnley for Celtic or Bolton” – how true that is I have no idea but it seemed that he had the opportunity to leave for Celtic earlier but didn’t because he wanted to continue the experience with Burnley – how times change.
I think it’s safe to say that almost every fan is bitterly disappointed with the move and him personally for the way in which he’s gone about it, including me. After all that he’s said previously I would have thought he had a little more respect for both the club and the fans than to deny that he wanted the job on Thursday, to miss a press conference on Saturday and then affirm he wanted to leave on Monday.
It’s a shame Owen that you have gone about it in this way; you could have left Burnley a hero but instead you’ve rather tainted your own image. Thank you for the good times but I hope that we move onto bigger and better things without you.
Always worth remembering that no man is ever bigger than the football club and Burnley will live on to fight more and bigger battles than this; and will win them too.
Slightly delayed with writing this up, and it appears I haven’t updated the blog with real content in a while so you’ve had to put up with Twitter weekly updates. Sorry about that, I hope to get some regular posting going soon. For now, enjoy the story below 
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Unless you’ve been living under a rock or not reading properly you’ll know by now that I’m a Burnley FC supporter. You’ll also probably be aware that we achieved promotion to the Premier League, the top flight football league in England (and quite possibly the world ), in May.
Well, what a baptism of fire we have had back in the top flight. Playing 4 of the top 5 teams within out first 5 games including Manchester United, Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool along with Stoke right at the very start of the season.
We didn’t have the best of starts, going down 2-0 at the Britannia on our season day opener but I’m delighted to say that things have just got better and better from there. Our Wednesday evening fixture against Man Utd on the 19th was attended by over 18,000 clarets who saw their team come out victorious in a 1-0 win against the champions of English football. I’m also proud to say “I was there” among the fans, cheering the team on to eventual glory. It really was a sight to behold and something that you can’t really describe, literally a cauldron of noise that even the United manager, the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson commented on.
Not only did we beat Man Utd 1-0, we did exactly the same to Everton on Sunday. Two scalps in a week, and people think this division is hard to play in…
We’ve had two excellent results but there is still plenty of hard work to go. However, Burnley seem to be back where we belong 
. Come on you Clarets! 
Brian "Beast" Jensen showing how 36,000 Burnley fans felt when the full-time whistle arrived at Wembley
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life, and I’m feeling good…
Well, it’s the day after the extraordinary afternoon which saw Burnley, a small mill town in Lancashire with only 70,000 residents, win the play-off final at Wembley to take us to the Premier League.
Feel free to re-read that statement, I can’t quite believe it either.
It’s one of those days that each and every one of the 36,000 clarets who attended Wembley will cherish and remember for the rest of their days. Some may say the Orient game back in ‘87 (Burnley had to win in order to survive in the 4th division. Had they have lost it would have meant playing non-league football and quite possibly the end of the club) was more important than yesterday but make no mistake that the 90 minutes played on the 25th May 2009 gave the club the biggest financial reward (around £60M) that we’ve ever had in our long and illustrious history dating back from 1882.
Burnley celebrate a fantastic victory over Sheffield United at Wembley
The feeling and emotion at the end of the game is indescribable, and you would only ever appreciate what it was like if you were actually there (simply look at the image to the left to see what I mean). I have huge sympathy for those who were unable to get tickets, especially as there were sections of Wembley completely empty around the “Club Wembley” section where the corporate “prawn sandwich brigade” like to locate themselves. Hopefully everybody who wanted to watch the game found a position where they were able to see the fantastic scenes, even if they were unable to be a part of them.
The entire town will be on a high for the considerable future. Proof of this lies with this evening, and the parade of the team through the streets for a civic reception at the town hall. Brilliant scenes, I only wish that I could have joined the crowds to celebrate the team’s homecoming.
So, some 33 years after being relegated from the top flight we are back where we belong. History has been made, and a new chapter in the Burnley Football Club book has been created. Premier League here we come .
We are Burnley. Super Burnley. We are Burnley. From the North.
Today will hopefully be a good day in the life and times of Burnley Football Club, and I’ll be there to experience it at Wembley. In the meantime, we must thank an individual who has joined our football club and taken us to the edge of the Premier League with a tiny budget and the smallest squad in either the Premier League or the Championship. Owen Coyle, a true legend in every sense of the word who will have firmly cemented his place in the history books should success ensue today.
Whatever happens today, we’ve done amazing things this season and I’m utterly proud to call myself a Claret. Come on Burnley, after 33 years of wandering lets dig out one more game to take us back where we belong; the top flight of English football.
Que sera sera, whatever will be will be, we’re going to Wembley, que sera sera
While Burnley are certainly on their way to the grand old (considerably less old since they decided to pull it down and start again ) national stadium it is always a little concerning as a supporter to know if you are going to get tickets to the big games such as Wembley. I’m pleased to report that I managed to get tickets this morning after they were released to the general public .
I’m also well aware of the ongoing saga with TicketZone and their handling of the sudden flow of Burnley supporters wanting tickets this morning and not coping with demand; I do hope that those genuine supporters who want tickets are able to get them rather than the touts gaining the upper hand and snapping up a large allocation to sell for a ridiculous profit on their part. Clearly demand is high, if the sums are correct then some 14,000 tickets that were available on general allocation from this morning at 9am have already sold (the website was completely off-line and more pure luck than judgement at getting a space in the queue on the phones when I claimed mine at 10:30am)
If you do happen to support the Clarets and have managed to get tickets, I’ll see you there .
Image shamelessly “borrowed” from the Burnley FC site under a fair use mantra
My “Keyboard Not Found” avatar goes everywhere online with me; chances are you’ll probably recognise that before my username, so I very rarely use anything else.
Now, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get edited once in a while for special occasions; we’ve had Christmas and general winter variations as well as a special Easter egg one very recently.
You’ll also probably be aware from previous blog posts that I’m a Burnley FC supporter, and if you are following the Coca-Cola Championship you’ll realise we are pushing for a “play-off” spot to get into the top flight of English football, the Premier League. To celebrate this, and to offer my support towards the campaign I’ve added our club crest onto the avatar as you can see above (if you click on the image you’ll see the avatar in all its glory; 512×512 instead of the usual 120×120. You should also be able to scroll through and view the other variations I’ve talked about).
Let’s hope that all our omens and rituals are worthwhile and we’ll be contesting in the premiership next season .
Well, just how close were we to the final. 120 seconds away from utter glory before the legs ran out and Spurs planted one in the back of the net to send them through. Lucky buggers…
It was a fantastic match both for the spectators and the general viewing public. Burnley fans exploded through the turnstiles not expecting miracles, perhaps a 1-0 or 2-0 scoreline would be good to say “we tried”. However, we got so much more than that .
I won’t go into epic details or generate a full match report, I’ll leave various other excellent sites to do that for me. Suffice to say we went from elation to desperation in the blink of an eye.
We should be proud, however. Continually we’ve pulled it out when it counts, and the players’ spirit on Wednesday night will be treasured for years to come. Those who went will talk about the time we almost had it for decades, while saying “I was there” .
It’s taking a great deal of effort to compose myself to write something resembling English in the continuous prose form. We’ve beaten Arsenal by 2 goals, no penalties this time!
An absolute brilliant showing from the Clarets and Owen Coyle, who I’m sure will forever be a saint to every Burnley fan .
Now the awaiting to see who we get in the semi-finals!
Giant-killers Burnley have been drawn at home to Arsenal in the Carling Cup quarter-finals.
The Championship side progressed by beating Premier League leaders Chelsea 5-4 on penalties, but face a tough test against Arsene Wenger’s young side.
Everybody send your hopes and prayers (assuming that you think some sort of God exists ) to Burnley and lets group hug and hope that we can come through the other side as semi-finalists .
