Burnley have one foot in promised land

Last Sunday’s exceptional win at Ewood Park a good point at Birmingham last Wednesday – never a happy hunting ground for the Clarets – and three points against Leeds United only served to reinforce that belief after the pundit-defying home wins against Derby County and Nottingham Forest.

All those results see Burnley enter the final quarter of the season with 70 points tucked under their proverbial belts.

And if that is not a tally to whet the appetite for what is to come, I am not sure what is.

I have always been a glass-half-full kind of a fan and never give up on anything until the league table proves me wrong.

But it will take an exceptional shift in fortunes for this season to go wrong.

And it just does not look like happening.

In the 44 years I have been watching events unfold at Turf Moor I cannot remember a campaign which has defied so many pre-season hopes and fears.

And when the Clarets do take their place in the promised land of milk and honey which is the trademark of modern-day football, I also believe that they will do so in far better shape than they did five years ago.

I know many of my friends – one so pessimistic his glass is not usually just half-empty, it has actually been stolen – will view these words with great trepidation.

But I know that those with any latent interest at all in matters Claret and Blue are now joining the cause.

In Sean Dyche, Burnley have a manager who rarely takes the credit for the remarkable turn-around in fortunes that we have witnessed this season.

Some clubs always have their manager at centre stage, but in Dyche Burnley do not have that kind of a manager as witnessed on Sunday when he dedicated the first win in a generation against the old enemy to the town, the fans and the board of directors.

He did what so many others have failed to do in three-and-a-half decades. Well done “Ginger Mourinho”.