Magic confidence potion
Plus: Nine! More! Years!
Last week I said I’d be able to send a newsletter about a win one day soon. It’s today!
Magic confidence potion
I don’t always agree with Sean Dyche’s comments in the media, but I think he was right to keep pointing out we have been playing reasonably well this season.
We could have had more than double our points tally if results matched performances.
Saturday was easily our best display of the season, though, and perhaps the best team performance since the last time we took Brentford apart, back in the Championship.
Burnley flew out of the blocks and 3-0 flattered the shell-shocked Bees at the interval.
The difference that a bit of confidence makes is incredible. Chris Wood has not been at his best this term, leading to some fans calling for someone else to get a go up front.
There were a few things wrong with that idea. Firstly, it isn’t like any of the potential replacements have been any better this season - none of them have bagged at all in the league. Secondly, in the last few years Wood has scored a large chunk of our goals.
He is the main man in our attack and, while he often starts seasons slowly, he always comes good. It would not surprise me one bit if he now went on a fine run of form and scored a few in the next month or so. I’d certainly back him to end the season with at least 10 league goals for what would be the fifth season in a row. Some consistency.
Wood took his strike superbly and he was a constant threat, with a marginal offside VAR call all that stopped him from adding an assist for Maxwel Cornet to his goal.
Confidence was flowing elsewhere. Matt Lowton had his best game for ages, setting up Wood for the opener then finding himself unmarked six yards out to head home to make it 2-0. One full-back crossing for the other to score - I hate our anti-football.
Lowton always seems to perform better when he has competition for his place. No offence to Phil Bardsley, but Lowton actually has that now Connor Roberts is fully fit.
Nick Pope made what could have been a costly mistake when he dropped a cross, but a big save in each half built on his strong individual performance in midweek. I don’t think he is quite back to his very best yet, but there are signs that he is getting there.
It was a big day for Dwight McNeil too. Back on the left wing, he looked a lot happier, albeit still with some freedom to cut inside. The ball for Maxwel Cornet’s goal was a peach and, though McNeil still seems to lack confidence in his shooting, I really liked how he went for goal with a wide free-kick in the second half. Goals will come for him.
Big players turned up and cut out the errors that have dogged us all season. James Tarkowski bounced back from last week’s mistake with a magnificent performance and after a shaky start - understandable after a few weeks off - Ben Mee was solid.
With Cornet adding stardust, our squad looks far stronger than last season. There is work to do, but keep the clinical edge from Saturday and more wins will follow.
Whatever magic confidence potion was in Westy’s pre-match brew round worked.
Nine! More! Years!
You might not have realised - the club kept it pretty low key after all - but Saturday was the ninth anniversary of Dyche taking charge at Turf Moor.
NNN was a blog back then and I remember our response to Dyche’s appointment - remember he had one year of experience with Watford on his CV - was pretty mixed.
Generally speaking, most fans seemed to think it was a pretty underwhelming move.
Just goes to show what we know, eh?
Nine years at a club is an amazing achievement in any era, but particularly now when clubs change their managers more often than a student changes their bedsheets.
There’s been some background chatter this season about Dyche’s future. In fairness, speculation about what his next move might be never seems to fully disappear.
But with a new long-term deal having been handed to Dyche by chairman Alan Pace, it is clear the club’s future will remain in his safe hands for the forseeable.
Even if we are relegated this season - which I don’t think will happen, for the record - I would expect Pace to give Dyche the chance to bring us back, if he wanted to stay.
Some personal highlights from the Dyche era:
Winning the Championship in style, celebrated with a blow-up trophy
Burnley in Europe. Might never happen again. Loved every moment of it
Getting Joey Barton to behave himself - it must have been some omelette
Finally beating that ugly lot from down the road. About bloody time
Maxwel Cornet
Perhaps an obvious selection, but plenty of options to pick from. Send in yours!
Here’s to nine more years.
Opposition view: Brentford
Podcasts and quiz question
Look out for the main show responding to our first league win of the season.
The pre-Chelsea preview show will be out on Friday as usual - and it will have the answer to this week’s quiz question:
How many current Burnley players were in the Clarets' matchday squad (starting XI plus seven subs) when Brentford last played at Turf Moor in a league match in the 2015/16 season?
Just a number needed for the answer, but if you reckon you can name them, go for it!
Tweet of the week
Birthdays and anniversaries
Scott Arfield, one of our best free transfer signings ever, is 33 today.
Ian Wright, who also made a massive impact after costing the club no fee at all, is 58 on Wednesday and is among this week’s other big birthdays.
A couple of defeats to Arsenal and Leicester City the last two times we played #OnThisDay, but back in 2005 we beat Millwall 2-1 at home under the lights:
Millwall getting a load of red cards is so out of character for that club, right? Weird.
Letters
Mark got in touch after last week’s newsletter on Cornet:
He seems to be a good little player and hope that, like the piece said rely on him too much, but seems to know where the goal is. Yeah he doesn't track back a lot to say he can also be played at left back so should be able to defend too. I'm not calling him out for it as he's new to the club and he needs time to bed in.
Looks like Maxwel will be up front for now and rightly so - we can probably park any worries about defensive duties while he’s scoring for us basically every week!
That’s it for this week - just comment below if you have any views to share with us.