I haven’t blogged about this as much as I would have liked to, but to be honest I haven’t had the chance to blog about anything recently. Regardless, we’re now in the final stages of Burnley’s first season in the Premier League.

And what a season it’s been; it started off with an away defeat against Stoke before that fantastic win against the league champions Manchester United. I can still remember the night like it was yesterday; some 20,000 Burnley fans not really believing we could get anything out of the game amazed and impressed in equal measure at our fighting spirit. I think after that night the general consensus was that anything was possible. Little old Burnley were back in the big time and standing tall with the rest.

Our away record rapidly became the laughing point of the league but our home form remained strong. Then January happened. If you talk to Burnley fans now there is still bitterness there; the wounds will take a long time to heal, even longer if we do end up being relegated. The general opinion is what he did is pretty unforgivable, and I’d have to broadly agree with that. He jepordised all of the excellent work that had already been done, and I don’t think anyone can ever forgive him for that. The man also destroyed our entire back room set-up by taking almost everyone, including the kit-man, with him.

However, we have to move on and become stronger. Brian Laws was appointed as the new manager and, to date, he hasn’t set anything on fire. Whether you agree with his appointment or not we all need to stand by him and the team and get behind them at every game between now and the end of the season.

Tomorrow brings the next stage of the journey, where we meet the village down the road in the return Premier League fixture. As you read this I’ll be travelling up towards Burnley to watch us get one over on our neighbours. What better way to start our run for survival by getting 3 points from our fiercest rival?

I think even the best optimist would concede that it isn’t looking good for our Premier League survival at the moment. However, whatever league we are in next year, lets focus our efforts on “continuing this incredible journey” as a Mr J. Coyle would have put it. Come on you Clarets.

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.

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.