Burnley 0
Tottenham Hotspur 3
The Premier
League
In what
seemed at times to be a daunting quest to complete the ninety two professional
football grounds in England, one uncharted venue has stood out like a beacon
for several years now, mainly because it lies only seventy miles from home.
That quest to 92 is not that far from completion now thanks to a concerted effort over the last
three years, so prior to Saturday’s journey to Lancashire, only ten more
grounds remained, and by my calculations I reckon it’ll be ‘job done’ by the
end of the 2018-19 season.
So,
Burnley, why has it taken until now?
Hard to say
really, when I was watching Derby regularly, we never seemed to meet, and since
then, I’ve looked at doing it by train, but that was fraught with logistical challenges.
Then they’ve had spells in the Premier League which meant tickets were not
seemingly straightforward to acquire, plus, from a journey perspective, it might only be
70 miles, but only if you go via the High Peak, otherwise it’s 100+ if you use
the M6 or the M62.
I’m making
excuses now, let’s be honest, I’ve just never got off my arse and made the
effort, but, it was while watching Match of the Day earlier this season I kept seeing
empty seats at Turf Moor, so when I saw they had a midweek game in December
against Stoke, I thought I’d give it a go. Simple, the website said tickets
were available, but, just below that was the game against Tottenham Hotspur,
and strangely, tickets were available for that game.
 |
| Master Hatt Loves A Good Spoons |
For some
unexplained reason, young Master Hatt has developed an obsession for all things
Spurs. I say unexplained, because up until a year ago he wasn’t even interested
in football, then almost from nowhere, it happened. He’s absolutely football
and Spurs obsessed, which is fine by me, I have no problems with Spurs, in fact
I quite like them, so our conversations have taken on another dimension.
The tickets
had to be bought, what a great Christmas present that was going to be for him,
for all of us in fact, and from my point of view, it was no excuses now,
Burnley was going to finally happen.
It’s
strange though, for saying how traveled I am in England, Burnley is a town I’ve
never set foot in. I’ve been to nearby Nelson, Colne, Padiham, Blackburn and
Darwen, but never a town that is one of the smallest ever to host a top flight
football team, with just 75,000 inhabitants.
We chose to
take the High Peak route, before joining the M60 and then the fog bound M66
right up to Accrington, and then finally getting onto the M65 and into the centre
of the town. A parking space was found a couple of minutes walk from Turf Moor,
and then it was a short walk into the small town centre.
 |
| Bob Lord |
This is
probably the point where you realise the size of Burnley, the town centre
consisted of a pedestrianised area and an undercover shopping precinct / market, that was pretty much it. I’m not one to knock places, because they are what
they are for a very good reason, but Burnley did not strike me as an attractive
town. Economically it’s tough, immigration has caused a swing in the demographic
and on the back of that there has been tension, notably the race riots of 2001.
We found a
seat in the local Wetherspoons, it would do the job pre-match, the atmosphere
was buoyant and the service good considering the volume of people, but young
Hatt was itching to get to the stadium, so Turf Moor it was to be.
This is the
staggering thing about Burnley Football Club, 75,000 inhabitants in the town,
yet an average home crowd of a touch over 20,000. Proportionate to its
population, Burnley is the best supported football club in the Country with
nearly 27% of the locals in theory attending games. To put that into perspective,
Derby County for example, using those ratios would get average home gates of
67,000!!
 |
| A Warm Six Bed Detached In Formby, Or, Pitchside Turf Moor...... |
Is Burnley
a football town? You bet it is, probably the most football town you could ever
find, and when you look at the clubs history, it’s certainly punched above its
weight, let alone now where they sat pre-game in the top five in the Premier
League.
It was a
hive of activity around the ground before the game, and we spent a short while
in the Fanzone that sits on the corner of the James Hargreaves and the Jimmy
McIlroy Stand’s. Mrs H had a pint from a double decker bus, I watched an
interview with the impressive Sean Dyche on the big screen.
 |
| Yid Army |
Turf Moor
is well documented, it’s a traditional football ground, with modern stands on
two sides and older stands housing the away support and of course the old Bob
Lord (Main)Stand which serves the Directors / Sponsors / Gareth Southgate etc.
Pre-match
we were sat just behind the BT Sport brigade which offered fine views and
photographic opportunities of Messrs Humphries, Gerrard and Jenas, but as kick off
neared, the stand filled and it turned out we were in the designated standing
area of the stadium. I found that out when I politely asked the gentleman stood
in front of me if he wouldn’t mind taking his seat. If you can’t beat them (and
I had no intention of trying), then join them!
What we
then witnessed was a privilege, the greatest striker in present day football (as
the stats now prove) scored a hat-trick in a game that Spurs pretty much
dominated from start to finish. Kane’s first goal came from the penalty spot
after pantomime villain Dele Ali hit the deck, but then he produced two
confident and assured finishes in the second period to secure a comfortable and
deserved 3-0 victory. Harry Kane is an outstanding footballer, and I’ve had the
fortune to see the likes of Lineker, Shearer and Rooney in the flesh, but this
lad is the best, and so level headed with it.
 |
| Jimmy Mac |
No doubt
our media will build him up to knock him down when he inevitably has a lean
spell, which may well fall at the World Cup knowing how things often work for
England. Talking of knocking, the Burnley support around us was somewhat
vitriolic, and ok, we might not have been in the most mild mannered section of
the ground, but the abuse Ali in particular took was vile. Maybe I’ve been too
far removed from the professional game for a while, but when I used to travel
home and away with Derby, I can’t recall individual players being singled out
for such abuse. Remember, he’ll be wearing a white shirt in the Summer gents,
you won’t be calling him all the names under the sun then!
We had to
make sure young Hatt kept his emotions to himself as Spurs were finding the
net. Sat behind us to the left was what looked like a Son / Father /
Grandfather combination, and when Kane scored his second, the youngster made
the mistake of cheering. Clearly then it was Dad’s problem, but fortunately
some of the more reasonable Burnley support offered to swap seats and allow
them to watch the rest of the game un-threatened. It’s not right, but it happens
and it’s a risk.
Leaving
Burnley was something of a chore, the traffic was murder, but eventually we
found the motorway and away we went. Young Hatt had loved his first ever Spurs
game, Mrs H was glad to be back in
“We may be
w**kers, but at least we don’t have to live in Burnley!”
I had a
more measured view on matters, I’d seen history, both sides of it. History in
the more traditional sense in terms of Burnley Football Club. But in Harry
Kane, we got to see history in the making.
Nine to go….
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment