A Win That Left Me Fuming

A win and three points is always good - but that doesn't mean any deficiencies should be glossed over and ignored. And there were some big downsides to the Burnley win.

First the good parts - it's now three wins in our last four undefeated games and ten points out of twelve that has us just three points off 4th place.

And, with Sunderland losing, a win in the derby would take us two points above the upstarts down the road. How good would that be.

That's a way better position than just a few short weeks ago when we were far too close to the bottom three. The panic and doom of that situation is now behind us.

But.... so close to another two points thrown away

In my match preview I said I was looking for lessons to have been learned and put into practice on the training pitch on how to control and see a game out late one.

Even at 2-0 up with just a few minutes to go a goal for the oppo can totally change the game and instantly panic the team and crowd. And guess what - it happened again.

An awful and stupid pass from Schar went straight to a Burnley player and from the resultant corner they scored from a penalty. Ransey was lucky not to be sent off.

Even luckier for us was Burnley missing a sitter from a cross when two unmarked players somehow both managed not to plant a forehead on the ball for a certain equaliser.

If they had scored I can only begin to imagine what the reaction and mood would have been at SJP and among the fans. Conceding TWO late goals against 10 men.

OK, it didn't happen, but this run of late goals isn't bad luck. It's bad game management yet again and Eddie has to sort this out as a priority in training. It can't go on.

It's also concerning that against a team on a run of five consecutive defeats, and down to ten men for over half the game, we were unable to score a goal from open play.

A somewhat fortunate Bruno goal direct from an in-swinging corner and a Gordon penalty put us two up. The woodwork was hit three times and Dubs made a number of saves but the truth is we missed a big chance to improve our GD by another 2 or 3.

In summary; we are on a good run for the first time this season but there is still plenty for Eddie to work on - and the next two games against Leverkusen and Sunderland are massive.

Win both of those and the Burnley near fiasco will soon be forgotten.

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