Well done Burnley! There, I've said it (despite the cry "Dad, how could you?" echoing in my ears), and what's more I mean it.
It's great for the whole of East Lancashire that such is the passion for football we will now sustain not one but two Premier League teams despite the towns being the smallest.
Indeed the situation in the historic county of Lancashire is quite remarkable, especially compared with England east of the Pennines. Forty per cent of all Premier League teams - eight in total - are now to be found in the north west.
Whatever has been said at our end of the East Lancashire valley about the Clarets, and plenty has been (much not repeatable in a family newspaper), I for one take my hat off to Burnley fans for their extraordinary loyalty over many years, when what happened on the pitch didn't give them much to cheer about, or even to turn up.
“For many months this season, I had this recurring nightmare that Burnley would go up whilst Rovers went down. I'd go into a cold sweat at the very thought”
At Rovers, we've had our bad times, dropping to the old third division in 1975, facing all the frustration at the end of the 1980s as the "nearly team", until saviour Jack Walker bought the club. And there was the disastrous 1998-99 season which saw us relegated just four years after winning the Premiership.
But that's as nothing to the traumas which Clarets fans have suffered. The year - 1987 - that we won the Full Members' Cup at Wembley saw Burnley stay within the Football League itself by a hair's breadth. All the time of course they've suffered the indignity - as they would see it - of being overshadowed by Rovers. We've only met Burnley four times in more than quarter of a century.
Ask any Blackburn fan and they'll recite the results with self-satisfaction: 17 December 2000, 2-0 at Turf Moor; 1 April 2001, 5-0 at Ewood Park; 20th Feb 2005, FA Cup goalless draw at Turf Moor March 2005 2-1 (with Pedersen getting a goal in the 85th minute) in the replay.
Whilst these fixtures preoccupied East Lancashire, they were not of much interest elsewhere. But next season two local derbies will be watched by the nation.
For many months this season, I had this recurring nightmare that Burnley would go up whilst Rovers went down. I'd go into a cold sweat at the very thought. And I then wondered whether in that situation I'd find the magnanimity to congratulate the Clarets. I'd have hoped so, but in truth I'm not sure.
Full marks to Clarets' chairman Barry Kilby for his promise - now being honoured at a cost of £2m - to repay all this season's 6,500 season ticket holders if Burnley went up. Burnley join Rovers as offering by far and away the best value for money, the greatest respect for loyal fans, of any club in the Premier League.
The cards in the Premier League are stacked very unevenly - with the big city clubs - Man Utd Liverpool, Chelsea etc - dominating revenue and trophies. Now we've seen that the old original town clubs - like our two - the backbone of the league, can fight back.
Great - and fingers crossed for next season.
Image source: The Guardian
