Point’s no shame from tight game
SUCH is the tight nature of the Championship that an otherwise fine result can see places changes hands in numbers.
And, let’s face it, a couple of good or bad results can send you soaring up or plunging down the tables.
Last Saturday’s match against Derby County was a case in point.
It was always going to be a tight game, with Derby lying eighth and Burnley tenth, and so it proved with a hard-fought 0-0 draw. It certainly wasn’t a bad result and if either side had have had their shooting boots on, it might have resulted in a single goal victory either way at best. Derby will be happier with the result but neither side could complain that a draw was a fair result.
The same goes for the supporters, although, astonishingly in my eyes, quite a few were grumbling. I can’t really see why. Derby were no pushovers - which is why they were in the promotion places going into the game - and although both sides made some errors and missed some chances, there was nothing between them.
In any season you will drop home points and in this case there was no shame in doing so with two evenly-matched sides acquitting themselves well.
Although both sides could be happy with their point, the closeness of teams (only five points separates fourth place from Burnley, now 12th) means the Clarets dropped two places and Derby fell out of the play-off places.
With the FA Cup this weekend, Burnley have a rare free Saturday but are back in action early enough when they travel to face another midlands outfit, Derby’s great rivals Nottingham Forest, on Tuesday.
This is an away game that, with Forest struggling, most lately under ex-Clarets boss Steve Cotterill, does have away points potential. At Turf Moor earlier this season Burnley demolished a hapless Forest (who nevertheless created some good chances of their own but didn’t put them away), a match which ended Steve McLaren’s tenure in the hot seat.
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Thursday 23 February 2012
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