The Impossible Dream

Exactly a year ago today, Burnley had 55 points on the board and stood in 11th place after 40 games. Six games and seven points later the side finished 13th in what many saw as a season of transition for the club.
Personally, I agreed with that thought and thought this season we would see more of the same. August came and went, with a few poor league results along the way. However, significantly, more significant than we ever could have imagined it to be, August also saw the Clarets dispose of two lower league sides to reach the third round of the Carling Cup.
As a Burnley fan, I’m not used to a profitable Carling Cup run so the thought of a home tie with Premier League Fulham always seemed a bit of a step too far, but a last ditch winner from home grown youngster Jay Rodriguez was enough to push us through to the fourth round and what surely must have been the end of the run, a trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea.
Just two defeats in nine games in between the two cup games placed us in a promising position to head to Stamford Bridge and put on a good show. 120 minutes and a penalty shoot out of nerves and delight followed and suddenly small town Burnley had disposed of the Kings of Bling from Kings Road.
A further seven points followed before the next cup tie, which again surely must have been the end of our run, facing an Arsenal side that had scored nine goals combined in their last two Carling Cup games. People talk of famous European nights at Anfield, but this surely must have been one of the most memorable home cup ties at Turf Moor in a long time. Kevin McDonald was the hero of the hour and the cup could be put to the back of the mind for a month before the unreal prospect of Burnley facing Spurs in the Carling Cup Semi Final.
Three wins, a draw and two defeats later we headed to White Hart Lane for the biggest away trip of our generation. An unbelievable first half of Claret domination followed and no matter what happened in that second half, I can forever remember the feeling of seeing Tottenham Hotspur 0 Burnley 1 on the big screen scoreboard.
Sandwiched in between the first and second legs of the semi-final were two league games. Both ended in defeat for what looked like a defeated Clarets side. The second leg showed us just how wrong we could be. Written off by a whole nation, Burnley could not possibly score three times just to take the game to extra time at Turf Moor against Spurs. I can’t put in to words the events of that night but it is surely the most topsy-turvy rollercoaster of emotions in my lifetime of watching the Clarets. We were beaten in the cruelest way possible by a Pavyluchenko goal but whatever happens we have the memories of that run forever.
Aside from the slight distraction of an F.A. Cup run, we were able to concentrate on the league right up until today. The Clarets have tasted league defeat just three times since that famous semi-final night and surely we now have a right to dream?
Six games away from the season’s close, we stand in 4th place on 65 points, the strongest position since the early days of this century, where we were denied a play-off place by just one goal. Surely this can’t happen again this season? Today we see a Burnley side who play with style, verve and passion. A team that looks better than any Clarets side I have witnessed in my lifetime.
The boys in Claret have played a substantial amount of games more than the teams around us with one of the smallest sides in the country. They have fought the unbeatable foe by recovering from a three goal deficit against Spurs. They have brushed aside Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest in the space of four days, scoring nine goals along the way.
With six games to go, memories like these must surely be the incentive to push the boys over the finishing line and into the play-offs.
Whatever happens, I’ll be there for the rest of this season, and on to next season no matter what division the Clarets are in or whatever situations the future can throw at us.
As the song that has become so familiar with Burnley Football Club this season says, these eleven men strove with their last amount of courage to follow that star.
Maybe, just maybe, the play-offs and the Premier League beyond that could be our star.
Maybe, we can dare to dream.