Burnley Tamed

[Guest Kamy100]

Karl Sturgeon's review of the derby:

Sunday was a good day. From a measured, sensible perspective, it was a good day because we gained three useful points to maintain our good home form and move further up the table ahead of – no, sod it, let’s not worry about home records and inching grimly towards the 40 point mark for one week. Forget sense and perspective. Sunday was good because we beat them.

Not only did we win, we won well. As enjoyable as it is to wind up their fans with jibes about gaps and inevitable, Derby-esque relegations, Burnley are in the Premier League on merit. To shrug off that early goal from Robbie Blake and take control was great to see. Although the second half wasn’t quite so good, and the inevitable late retreat into our own half led to Chris Eagle’s almost-as inevitable late goal, for most it we held Burnley comfortably.

As part of its post-game analysis, the LET dragged in a few Rovers and Burnley legends to offer their opinions and some of the Burnley names made crowd-pleasing comments about refereeing decisions and long balls.

No-one could seriously argue against the charge that Rovers were not entirely shy to get the ball into the box or use Paul Robinson’s long kicks as an attacking threat. (If only that free kick in the second half had bounced a few feet lower; if only!) Given Burnley’s weakness to it, it’s hardly surprising, and Rovers were effective in that first half because they mixed it: witness the first and third goals. For the first, Franco Di Santo showed great technique to touch down a ball from MGP for a fine, and poetically pleasing, goal for Dunny; the third goal came from a nicely-lofted ball from Keith Andrews (no, really, you weren’t drunk). Pedersen cushioned a header into Pascal Chimbonda’s path, and the attacking full-back turned a defender and finished like a striker.

As for the disputed refereeing decision, there was contact on Jensen, but from two players, Stephen Jordan and Di Santo. Graham Alexander had the opportunity to head the ball either over the bar or away but the way he headed the ball you’d think the famous beach ball had made its way down from Sunderland.

Dunny was a worthy man-of-the-match but Franco Di Santo is looking like a great signing, albeit only a short-term one. He offered not only a physical presence but also agility and technique under pressure, qualities essential in a target man. Compare Sunday’s attacking fluidity to our displays when the lone striker has been Jason Roberts, a striker this columnist rates - despite his seeming belief that the way to score at one-on-ones is to hit the ball straight at the keeper as hard as possible – but who patently isn’t a target man. Unfortunately, any hopes we may have had of keeping Di Santo past January have almost certainly been snuffed out by Chelsea’s transfer ban. Our only hope is that there’s a hypnotist lurking somewhere in Big Sam’s backroom team, and we can convince Ancellotti that the player he borrowed us was actually Maceo Rigters.

Franny indulged in his own spot of crowd-pleasing after the derby, when he told reporters he wants Rovers to beat his permanent employers at Stamford Bridge this weekend. Nice thinking but without the boy wonder it’ll be even harder than it might have been. Even if we get nothing there, most of us will still be smiling from Sunday just gone.