It was hardly the game of the season to be fair and looking back on proceedings it is very difficult to see how it could have been anything else but goalless given the lack of goalscoring opportunities at either end.
With current tabloid darling Harry Kane on one side and Danny Ings on the other, you might have been forgiven for believing it would be a game full of goals, and given the two sides there has been enough evidence to suggest such, but neither could find their goalscoring touch on a day when I think most of us had realised it was going to be a scoreline of 0-0 long before the end.
I'm certainly not complaining about it. Every point in this league is precious, and 42% of those we've won this season have come from draws. And, to add to that, we were playing against one of the better teams in this league, one that, until recently, looked to be in with a good shout of winning a Champions League place.
Danny Ings came closest to a goal |
Although Easter was later in 2014, I certainly had memories of Easter 2014 as I made my way down to the Turf yesterday. It kicked off with the Good Friday win among the tennis balls and the likes at Blackpool and ended on Easter Monday with that glorious day against Wigan when we clinched our promotion.
It's always worth that reminder because we wouldn't be playing Spurs and the like without that incredible 2013/14 season, but we are and this is one fixture that I always look forward to. Sadly, the Spurs fans didn't and it was a shock to see more empty seats in the cricket field stand than occupied, but given the date and the transport problems, those that the Premier League and Sky don't care about, and the over hyped price for a televised match, it probably shouldn't have been even surprising.
What was surprising was the inclusion of Fredrick Ulvestad in the match day squad. That was quickly explained with both Steven Reid and Ross Wallace ruled out and other players out on loan. The rest of the team news was as expected with the Clarets fielding an unchanged team.
The weather wasn't the best for the fancy dans of North London to be honest. The sun was shining and the temperatures were somewhat higher than we've been used to of late as we kicked off for the first time since the clocks went forward.
The biggest talking point came as early as the fifth minute with what was perhaps the best chance of the entire game. George Boyd put Ryan Mason under pressure, leading to a bad pass from the Spurs player.
Danny Ings spotted the opportunity and got onto the ball but could only shoot straight at Michel Vorm from around 15 yards. With the threat of a push forcing him to the ground, I'm sure Ings got the shot in a little bit earlier than he might have preferred, but he didn't look up to see where Vorm was and the save was an easy one.
We had other opportunities. Sam Vokes, who I thought started the game well, had a couple of efforts and Ashley Barnes, my choice as man of the match, was causing the Spurs back line no end of problems.
Spurs had their moments too. Twice Tom Heaton was forced into saves as they had a little spell midway through the half but, having started it the stronger, we finished the stronger with Ings forcing Vorm into another save, this time tipping over his shot from the left hand corner of the box.
A 0-0 scoreline it was though at half time but it was Burnley who looked the more likely for much of the second half which started somewhat strangely. Kyle Walker had picked up an injury just before half time but was fit to resume as the second half got under way.
Did I saw fit to resume? He limped back onto the pitch and looked in some discomfort and within no time, after trying to run, went down and had to be substituted.
They re-arranged with Ben Davies coming on but Vorm saved again from Ings as we pushed forward.
We got into some good situations in wide positions and more than once played some good balls into the box, one from Barnes, which substitute Lukas Jutkiewicz almost got onto, standing out.
We probably didn't put enough pressure on the Spurs defence but at the other end I was never really concerned with us keeping the visiting side at bay with some comfort.
Just once did they get behind us and on that occasion Kane came along the line from the right but his ball ended with Danny Rose outside the box whose shot was high over the bar.
They did, however, have the moment of the half when Paulinho broke through. Was he really shooting? If so, he was about twenty yards wide and the shot had no power in it. Even the stunned Spurs fans could do no more than laugh.
Right at the end we got one last chance. It came in the first minute of stoppage time from a throw on the right. Kieran Trippier threw it long but Davies got there and headed it upwards.
As it came down, Jutkiewicz did well to head it across to Boyd who likewise did well to head it goalwards. It was just wide and I think had it been just inside the post it would have beaten Vorm.
That was it, 0-0 it was and in truth it had looked to be heading for 0-0 for some considerable time.
It wasn't the perfect result given that both QPR and Leicester had won on the day before and Sunderland went on to win just afterwards in the Tyne-Wear derby, but a point is a point and as Michael Duff said after the game, points are hard to come by in this league.
I would have loved to have seen us follow up the previous home game against Man City with another win. We didn't and we didn't score, but there were some positives to take from the game, none more so than another clean sheet, our seventh of the season.
We all knew that this horrendous run of fixtures was coming and we've now played seven of them. It's only Arsenal next week and then at least we'll be playing teams that bit further down the league. It doesn't make them easy games but they are fixtures against teams much closer to us.
I don't know whether we are going to make it, whether we are going to get enough points by the end of the season. But I'm continuing to enjoy it and as long as we are in there with a chance then I know this team of ours is going to give it everything.
I'm already looking forward to Arsenal, probably the best team in the league at this time.
The teams yesterday were;
Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Ashley Barnes, Danny Ings, Sam Vokes (Lukas Jutkiewicz 76). Subs not used: Matt Gilks, Michael Keane, Stephen Ward, Fredrick Ulvestad, Michael Kightly, Marvin Sordell.
Yellow Cards: Kieran Trippier, Ben Mee.
Tottenham: Michel Vorm, Kyle Walker (Ben Davies 47), Eric Dier, Vlad Chiriches, Danny Rose, Ryan Mason (Andros Townsend 83), Nabil Bentaleb, Christian Eriksen, Paulinho, Nacer Chadli (Erik Lamela 64), Harry Kane. Subs not used: Brad Friedel, Benjamin Stambouli, Mousa Dembélé, Roberto Soldado.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (Leeds).
Attendance: 18,829 (including 1,927 Spurs fans).