Burnley's cup runneth over - and the vultures are circling

What a week for Burnley! At the start of Wednesday evening, they were 4-1 down on aggregate in their League Cup semi-final against Spurs – they needed to win at least 3-0 to go through. After ninety minutes they were indeed 3-0 up, but in a perverse variation on the rules they had to prove their worth for another thirty minutes before they could go through on the away goals rule.

I have no idea how many people (other than the anoraks) were aware of that rather irrational rule – perhaps it was a case of everybody’s only finding out about it when it suddenly became relevant. On the night it almost seemed like those frustrating playground moments when the boy who not only owns the ball but the jerseys too decides to suddenly change the rules because his team is losing.

Whatever, Burnley hung on for another 28 minutes, but Spurs scored. And scored again, with a sadistic and unnecessary second stab of the Burnley goal. The whole country felt their pain as intensely as they had shared their exhilaration at reaching the impossible score, a collective feeling which will have carried on to some extent to yesterday’s F.A. Cup games. Everybody who followed Burnley’s game on Wednesday will have enjoyed their last-gasp equaliser away at Premier League West Brom.

Why, though?

UNDERDOGS

I don’t support Burnley, and if I’m to be totally honest they have rarely crossed my radar in the past. I can’t remember offhand if they have beaten my own team (Sunderland) recently or even if we have coincided in the same division in the last few years, and with all due respect to the club and the fans I reckon the rest of the country probably felt the same before Wednesday evening.

So why on Earth was everybody so excited about the game against Spurs?

For a start, I suppose it helped that there were no other major matches on that night. There is also the fact that English fans will often support the underdog in any match in which their team is not taking part, and as bad as Spurs are this season, a Championship side should always be the underdog against a Premier League side.

It also helped that nobody – except perhaps the fans of rival Lancashire teams – has anything against Burnley in the way that many fans will always want to see Chelsea or United lose. Of course, nobody – again, except for local rival fans, perhaps – has anything against West Brom, but then the feeling surrounding Burnley had faded a little by Saturday. It was only intense against Spurs. And that is the key.

PUT THE BOOT IN

There is nothing better to break the tedium of modern top-flight football than seeing a big club in a bad way. Unless you are the fan of one of those clubs which wins titles with monotonous (for the rest of us) regularity, the season starts to lose its sparkle very quickly. A modest cup run might relieve the boredom of the mid-table mire, but it would be hard to claim that the joy of winning a relegation stand-off ever compensates for the stress of seeing your team about to drop (and in some cases, seeing them humiliated).

Some people make up for the lack of celebrations by hoping that when one of those big clubs reaches a final they lose it, and everyone has that club that they hate to see win. So when a supposedly big club not only starts the season badly but also continues in a nosedive that not even managerial changes and January signings can correct, local rivals and neutral fans alike gather like vultures in eager anticipation.

It is the natural opposite of being happy for the likes of Reading or Hull when they stay up in the first season – while they are still considered to be small clubs, people are pleased to see them do well, and the fans love it when they stick it to the big boys. And just as people express disappointment every time a newly-promoted club goes straight back down, most fans would absolutely love it if a big club went down instead.

For most people, seeing Man City, Spurs or Blackburn go down this season would at least give us something to talk about. As for Burnley, their season could get even better in the long run if they make the play-offs (at the moment they are seventh). I would be delighted for them if they managed it, but at that stage of the season most fans probably won’t even notice – they’ll be perched on leafless branches waiting to see which club will perish.

Unless Burnley reach another semi-final – what are the chances of that?