Burnley are officially a Championship side again through other results going against them yet they were still superior to Hull City, whose relegation has yet to be confirmed. This looked very much like a meeting of two Championship sides and though Hull still have a chance of salvation with two games left, their opponents are Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United and Steve Bruce is already clutching at straws.
“When teams have nothing left to play for at the end of the season it is very difficult to get them motivated,” the Hull manager said. “You saw that with Tottenham at Stoke. Who would have thought Spurs would go down by three goals?”
Fair point but Hull are not Stoke by a very long chalk. Unless Bruce’s players can buck their ideas up and show some fighting spirit, not to mention much needed creativity, any donation of points by Spurs or United would look so blatant a fix that there might have to be a stewards’ inquiry. Even against Burnley, who had a shrewd idea by kick-off that results elsewhere could leave them stranded, Hull were unable to manage any goal threats or serious pressure. Two shots against the bar from free-kicks by Robbie Brady represented their best hopes of a goal so to some extent they were unlucky, though to his credit Bruce was not looking for excuses.
Michael Dawson was off the field receiving treatment to a facial injury when Danny Ings scored the winning goal just past the hour but Bruce was not looking to hide behind that either. “We didn’t turn up, simple as that,” Bruce admitted. “We had a wonderful chance to get the result we needed to make our situation more comfortable and we didn’t take it. We can’t seem to cope with occasions when we are expected to win. We have enough experienced players in the team but we were nowhere near the required level against Burnley and now we might have to go into the last match looking for a win.”
Hull may not be that lucky. Burnley had the rug pulled from beneath them by Leicester’s impressive revival and Hull’s best hope now may be the Foxes doing them a favour at Sunderland on Saturday. Stranger things have certainly happened this season. On 14 March, the day Burnley beat Manchester City to put themselves on the verge of an improbable escape from the relegation zone, Leicester were bottom and being held goalless at home by Hull. Since then Nigel Pearson’s side won six games out of eight, scoring 17 goals in the process, while Burnley hit a goal drought at exactly the wrong time. Ings’ winner was their first goal since beating City, with predictable consequences for their league position. “How crap must you be, we’ve just scored a goal?” chorused the travelling fans, gallows humour containing more than a grain of truth.
Sean Dyche put a brave face on an outcome for which he must have been prepared, arguing that Burnley were unquestionably in a healthier position now than they were when he took over two and a half years ago. That much is true, and it also seems likely that Burnley will be challenging for promotion again before long, though a lot depends on how long an able young manager chooses to stay at a club with such limited resources. What Dyche has achieved on a shoestring is remarkable, what he might achieve with a decent budget is something that could soon be put to the test, though for now the Burnley manager is content that his side were not disgraced by any of the “superpowers” in the Premier League.
“Everything has to be upgraded for this division, nothing can quite prepare you for it, but the big challenges in life are what you learn from,” Dyche said. “Other clubs have been able to buy in players who are able to seize that moment of truth, score that goal. We’ve had to develop it from within the group, we’ve not been able to throw money at it. Some Premier League clubs are backed by unbelievably wealthy people who are willing to write off astronomical amounts of money. We can’t do that, in fact we found the whole thing has moved forward.
“You are not now looking at nicking a player for one or two million like you were three or four years ago, now your starting point is seven, eight or nine million and that’s for a Championship player, not a recognised Premier League performer. How many of those can you afford to bring in? If you are Burnley you are lucky if you can bring in one, because that’s your budget done. I’m not complaining, I think we’ve been a good advert for how close it can be. It can be done but for a club of our size it’s a tough challenge.”
Man of the match Robbie Brady (Hull)
