Burnley into the Premier League – can they survive?

What a fantastic achievement by Burnley this season. One third of the town’s entire population made the trip to Wembley yesterday to see their team win the Championship play-off final and head towards the massive adventure that is the Premier League.

Important

Wade Elliott scored the all important goal as Burnley triumphed 1-0 over Sheffield United. That win capped a quite remarkable season for the Lancashire club. As well as promotion they reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup and the semi-final of the Carling Cup. Along the way they beat the likes of Fulham, Arsenal and Chelsea.

Burnley manager Owen Coyle has done a wonderful job since arriving at the club and although he will enjoy the moment, he will soon be focussed on the daunting task that faces him and his men over the next twelve months.

No chance

A year ago I would have said that Burnley stood little or no chance of staying in the Premier League. It always seemed to be the way that the promoted clubs would drop straight back out of the top league. Now though, Owen Coyle and the Burnley fans can take heart from Stoke and Hull and really believe that they can do it.

OK, West Brom went straight down this season following their promotion, but they played some decent football and were certainly not detached from the rest of the league in the way that Derby were the season before. Hull had a remarkable start to their season that saw them sitting in third place at one stage. They only managed to win won game in their last twenty-two, but they did enough in the first sixteen to stay up.

Royalty

Stoke played in a way that upset some of the Premier League royalty but they had a plan, stuck to it and survived comfortably, making their home ground an absolute fortress.

Burnley will see what Hull and Stoke have achieved and they will have the confidence that their one off cup victories over Premier League teams will have given them and they will feel they have a decent chance of giving it a go.

No fear

When you look at the quality of some of the sides who stayed in the top flight this season, maybe Burnley are right to have no fear. Hull, Sunderland, Portsmouth and Stoke could be in for another hard season and the other promoted teams, Wolves and Birmingham are likely to be in the battle at the bottom.

It is unrealistic for Burnley to think about anything other than survival, but in the Premier League that is basically split into three different leagues, there is no reason why they can’t hope to get to the top of the bottom league.

Celebrate

All of that is for the future however, and Owen Coyle, his players and their fans deserve to have just a little while to celebrate their success before they contemplate what is to come.

Many people have said that staying in the top league is harder and a more impressive achievement than getting their in the first place. Indeed, when you saw the scenes of celebration at Hull on Sunday and the immense joy on the face of their boss Phil Brown, you could see that was the case.

Experience

Burnley have some really good players. They have the experience of the likes of Robbie Blake, Graham Alexander and Clarke Carlisle together with the flair of the likes of Chris Eagles. They have some decent youngsters and a reliable keeper. Are they good enough to stay in the Premier League? Probably not, but a couple of new players to add to the incredible team spirit and work ethic that they already possess and they will have a great chance.

The play-offs are a wonderful invention and the chance for clubs like Burnley and Hull to have their day at Wembley and get a crack at the best in the country just adds to this wonderful game of ours.

Proud

Of course, everyone connected with Sheffield United will feel that the game is anything other than wonderful at the moment. They can feel proud of their season and they can certainly challenge again next season. They will feel like their world has come to an end, but they can and will bounce back.

What a great season we have had. Just one more game between the two best sides in Europe to come. The champions of England against the champions of Spain. A fantastic way to end a fantastic season.