After my Dad took me to my first ever Burnley FC game (when I was 5yrs old), I was hooked. Hooked on football and hooked into being a Burnley fan for ever more. Throughout my childhood, through my teenage years and into my 20's, I spent £££thousands buying Burnley season tickets and travelling all over the country to watch Burnley in the old 3rd & 4th divisions. I endured some awful "football". Over the last 10-15 years, Burnley have risen to become a good Champioship team, currently in 5th place in the Championship - maybe the Premier League is finally beckoning for Burnley?
Last night, Burnley travelled down to London with 6,100 excited Burnley fans to face the daunting prospect of trying to take on Chelsea's superstars for a place in the quarter-finals of the League Cup. I was quietly hoping that the score would be respectable, maybe something like 2-0 or perhaps 3-1 to Chelsea. I was assuming Burnley would lose. But football is a funny old game (as a certain Mr Greaves once said). Amazingly, after 120 mins of tense football, Burnley had performed heroicly and held Chelsea. The score was locked at 1-1, and so penalties it was.
As I scoured my hands to find some nails left to bite, it went to sudden death penalties. The Burnley keeper saving Chelsea's kick meant that Burnley were through and had knocked Chelsea out! Suddenly, I loved football (again!) Cue the inevitable deluge of text messages etc ...
It then occurred to me .............. this is why football is so popular. No football match is an exact science and no result is a foregone conclusion. The drama, the elation, the ups & downs, the sheer terror, the absolute heart stopping moments of joy - these are the kinds of things all football fans of all clubs live for. To win when it seems impossible, to succeed when the odds are stacked against doing so. Last night was memorable for me as a Burnley fan - I'll savour the moment (because who knows - when will the next one be?)
Chelsea are a formidable team - undoubtably they will rally together and bounce back & delight their fans once more. They are, after all, still sat on top of the Premier League and in a great position in the European Champions League. In the meantime, why not promote Kitbag's range of Chelsea Christmas gifts - the ideal way of banishing those 'Burnley Blues' from Chelsea fans' minds:
Price: £39.99
"CUSTOM TEAM TACTICS
Become a first-team coach with the power to tune and
balance 140 attacking and 40 defending options.
TRUE FOOTBALL SIMULATION
More responsive first-time shooting, passing and
one-touches, plus more controlled dribbling.
ADIDAS LIVE SEASON
Receive weekly player form updates based on real-world
data through the adidas Live Season service.
BE A PRO: SEASONS MODE
Playing as your favourite superstar or creating a player of
your own, master a single position during a four-year campaign.
"
Kind regards
John Fitzpatrick
Internet Marketing Manager
Kitbag.com
De.licio.us
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