Welcome back to this unique journey with Burnley football club, to provide a quick recap, season one went swimmingly, thanks in no small part to the goal scoring exploits of “King” Kyle Lightbourne, who managed to score 57 goals in all competitions.  Burnley were promoted as champions of Division Two and are now embarking on a similarly long and rigorous campaign in Division 1, with a view to making it to the Premier League at the first time of asking.  

Regarding signings and rules, any player from either Ireland or Northern Ireland can be played at any time, so can any player from a country beginning with B (foreign player rules still apply).  Up to three wildcard players can feature in a match day squad, as long as they are either French or have been signed from the pre-approved Wikipedia rivals list.  After a whole season of transfer dealings, I now have enough players to ensure that each match day squad adheres to the rule requirements, and I only have a few ineligible squad members to offload.

Despite Kyle being a League 2 Legend and Pat Bonner an excellent one year stop gap, the squad needs strengthening, so I dip into the regen market and the regular transfer market.

Remi is midfield cover, De Souza has been a long term target, so the moment it said he was an under 21 international I pounced in order to avoid the work permit situation. Jean is the reincarnation of French legend Bernard Lama, Steve R is some guy from Belgium, Steve B is Ray Houghton’s respawn, Donel is John Aldridge’s young avatar, Ian played a 7+ for Leeds in the Premier League and as memory serves is part of the -1 club, so I’m hoping for good things.  I’ve no clue who Wesley is but I wanted some fullback cover, Jeff is Jeff, Sead is probably my first CM9798 Bosnian signing his stats suggest he is one hell of a right back, here’s hoping. Frederic was a scout recommendation and interested in coming to join the Clarets, he is King Kyle’s replacement, just don’t mention that to Kyle, a 57 goal season and then dropped from the team, you’ve got to make the tough calls at this level.

Match one, at home to newly relegated West Ham.  I decide to move towards a variation of Barcelona’s 3-1-3-3, however this is more like a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1.

The game couldn’t go any better, new boy Nee gets a hat-trick and we limit West Ham to two shots on target.  Hopefully this strong start will continue.

Northampton are our next opponents as we begin our first foray of the season in knockout football.  I switch a few players around, Donal starts over Freddy and opens his account for the club, I introduce Freddy in the 53rd minute and he scores a quick fire brace that will likely take this tie away from Northampton.

As I continue looking to strengthen the side, I find this potential gem available on a Free Transfer, so I take a hopeful punt, I’m not sure if he is a regen or not.

It’s our third home game in a row, Swindon come to Turf Moor and get dominated, before, unsurprisingly scoring first.  Fortunately, Freddy and Keith are on hand to turn it around.

I use the second leg of the League Cup to rest some players and give the old King a run out.  He’s still got skills, helping us to a 2-2 and a place in the second round.

With international centre back Alan Kernaghan injured, I’m trying out some of my younger centre backs.  Belgian Stevie Roussel makes a wonderful first impression, getting sent off after 29 minutes and giving away a second penalty!  Fortunately, we battle on and Keith gets the winner before a rather dull second half. 

We head to Elm Park next to face Reading, having grown up in Reading I have some fond memories of Elm Park and thanks to De Souza, Freddy and Ian I now have another.

In one of the most boring games of all time, (hence forgetting to take a screenshot) six total shots and the only one on target coming from Pat Scully as we sneak past Charlton at home, three points in three points though.  Unfortunately, Jean Candela is out for a month and my keeper cover is old man Bonner.  Having said that, he is still getting called up to the Republic of Ireland squad, along with Kernaghan, Scully P, Harte, Scully T and Jeff K.

Bonner’s first outing of the season coincides with our first loss.  I’m not blaming him, publicly.

We were crap though, hopefully just a blip.

It might not be a blip, there is another dull and dishwater display at home to Sheffield Utd, two shots on target, one per team and no goals.

Our next game away to Bradford falls during an international window and we lose five of the starting eleven, including our only fit keeper Uncle Pat.  Young grey Dalian Muntasser has to step up. Technically he falls outside of mission parameters, as all greys take the nationality of your team’s country of origin. However, as I consider playing without a keeper a little bit cheaty in a challenge like this, Muntasser is the lesser of two evils.  In the end it’s not the worst result but losing Freddy and Phil is another blow.

Our slightly depleted side manage to eke out a narrow victory at home to Stoke thanks to a goal from Keith, but it’s another injury to a striker.

After injuries to two of my strikers I bring King Kyle back into the side for a home tie against Port Vale in the second round of the League Cup.  He’s still got some moves, scoring two goals, taking his total for Burnley up to 60.

I stick with Kyle as we travel to the Hawthorns for an away match against West Brom, their keeper plays a blinder and not one of our 17 shots finds the net.  Unfortunately, Richie Sneekes a goal for the hosts and we lose 0-1.

Our trip to Oldham begins promisingly, Donal giving us a half time lead.  Oldham turn it round in the second half as we lose two in a row for the first time this season.  Worryingly Patty B is returning some high numbers in goal, so I think we might be getting overrun at the moment.

A third away match in a row, Ipswich are our opponents.  We manage to halt the slide thanks to goals from Keith and Alessandro.

With a 3-0 lead in the bank against Port Vale in the League cup we do enough to get through to round three. Bosnian Ramcic wears the captain’s armband and gets a goal too.

Our recent League matches at Turf Moor have been poor and despite fielding a close to full strength team we cannot hit the target against Fulham, luckily they only have one shot on target and Bonner is up to the task. He only had to save one shot all game but still got an 8 and MOM, is this a sign that things are not good?

Things are not good, it seems everyone in the squad is suffering from low morale.  This might be why we seem so limp. I have no quick fix managerial strategies for this, so I will just continue what I’m doing and hope it magically gets better, that’s a good plan right? If not, it could spell trouble, even more trouble than one win in four league games.

Make that one win in five league games as we are buried by Bury.

Oh dear, it’s getting worse not better.  Four points from a possible 18 thanks to a Dougie Freedman hat-trick.  I can’t even be happy for Kyle at a time like this.

The downturn in form has been quite remarkable, as highlighted by this helpful graphic.

The only positive is that there are 31 games left to turn this around, ideally the minimum I would like is a playoff place and a chance at promotion.

Join us next week to see if we can halt our little nosedive and start playing with some of our early season pizzazz.