No doubt cup run has affected league form - but would we rather have missed it?
IT'S possible to be both elated and downhearted as a Burnley supporter at the moment.
The club's performances in both the Carling and FA Cups have given the club the highest profile it has had for a while and earned them some excellent reviews for the attacking, passing game that manager Owen Coyle has introduced.
Hopes being dashed at the last - and that odd extra time rule - by Spurs in the Carling Cup were revived by that gutsy performance at West Brom which keeps the club's interest in the FA Cup going, albeit at the price of another replay.
The cup runs are bringing much needed revenue into the club and they are a great roller-coaster ride for supporters but there's no doubt it is having an effect on league form, the defeat at Watford on Tuesday night being the fifth in a row.
Playing twice a week there is little doubt the players are tired. Just a week with only one game in it would help get the league season back on track, I suspect.
It's a shame because the football this side is capable of producing should see Burnley easily seal a play-off place and they will now have to work hard to win it back. The groundwork done before Christmas was good though, and this side is not struggling like the 1983 side.
As this column reported a few weeks ago, the 1982-83 season was memorable for an exciting run to the semi-final of the then Milk Cup (now the Carling competition) and to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup where the Clarets bowed out to Sheffield Wednesday after a replay at Hillsborough (paying the price for Steve Taylor's penalty miss at Turf Moor).
But league form slipped badly from a team that although useful was not as strong as Coyle's 2008-2009 vintage and in the end they were relegated, ushering in the toughest five years of the club's history.
That won't happen this time, but small squads subject to tiredness, injury and suspension do pay a price these days for the cup runs. The days when, for example, I think Liverpool played 60 plus games in the 1976-77 season with almost the same side have now gone. Clubs no longer pump injured players full of cortisone to keep them going and referees are much more zealous with yellow and red cards, so epic feats like that are unlikely to be repeated save for more player resources.
But still - even knowing what happened after 1983, we wouldn't have missed those cup runs for the world!
- THERE are energetic exceptions, of course, to the fatigue, but you wouldn't normally put money on it being the oldest player on the park!
So it's hats off to Graham Alexander, aged 37, ever-present so far in the campaign. The Scotland and former Preston defender-midfielder has already played 39 times this campaign, more than some Premiership club reserves will manage over several seasons.
His best role has probably been in midfield but when necessary he has filled in at his old right back position and hasn't had many bad games along the way.
My guess is he is on the way to being a member of that select band of players who are equally loved by more than one of the classic old Lancashire clubs. Alexander was Preston through and through and when playing for North End did more than his share of damage to Burnley over the years.
But his performances over the last two seasons have been more than enough to win over the Burnley crowd and he looks set to emulate David Eyres, the last player to wow the faithful at both Turf Moor and Deepdale.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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