No not a big disappointment at all.
Firstly I moved from the Cricket Field stand to a peach of a seat 6 rows from the front of the JH upper virtually on the half way line!
Secondly we got rid of Laws (albeit later than most of us wanted)
Thirdly we got ourselves a young ambitious manager with bags of potential
Fourthly, despite some chronic early season performances we we still in with a shout of the play offs with a few games to go
Fifthly, Chris McCann returned and looked better than ever

Rose coloured glasses .....maybe, but someone has to have them, to counter the negativity that often transpires on these boards!

Nice one Harrogate. Your seat sounds like a real winner.

I have to admit when I wrote this I was expecting a tirade of negativity, because that's what I was used to on the Burnley 606 board. Burnley fans seem naturally pessimistic. It's good to see that at least one of you can look at things positively.

I think my naturally positive outlook is largely down to the last time I intensively followed the clarets (1988-1996). During this time I went to all home and as many away games as I could. Relative to today they were, more often than not, dark disappointing times to be a claret. The football wasn't great, the results weren't either. From 96 I worked away from the area a lot and rarely attended a game. I then moved to Harrogate and Owen Coyle took over, there was something about how the team started to play and I began attending the odd home match during his first season. I then got a season ticket again with promotion to the prem (glory hunter?......I'm not sure if I qualify or not) and now I can't see me ever not having a season ticket again - I'm enjoying the football, but not the refs and assistants (maybe another thread there). Compared to the old fourth and third divisions we are still living the dream. You only need to look over your shoulder to see Bradford, the Sheffields etc to realise that we have a lot to be grateful for and very little to complain about.

I agree with Harrogate, the season was a bit of a let down but not hugely.
A poor team relegated from the Prem does not automatically translate into a good Championship side.
Perhaps they should but very often they don't especially with the injuries we picked up (even Charlie Austin got crocked within days of arriving) and the less than 100% faith in Brian Laws.
Yes, it was a bit disappointing to miss all those chances to get into the play-offs but it was pretty obvious, to be fair to the teams that did, that we weren't quite good enough.
H is right, we are in a very promising position. Some relegated teams slide, we haven't and we won't, things are looking pretty good.

Overall we got what we needed, a new manager and a younger vision for the team. If we play in the style of Bournemouth with the quality of the players we have then we should be back to being a hard team to beat.
We have started to get rid of some players, lot more need to leave, not sure about Thommo though, far more mobile than Lumpo but doesnt score as often. With Charlie and Patto running everything down I have good feelings for the future.
Not overly concerned with defense just as long as we attack with the players that we should have available.

Hey when do they start using our names? Its Onts the Claret here

Go to your member page, click settings and there's an option to set your screen name. Do that and we should see you as more than just a number.

Well I hope that did it,

Yay! :D Well done!

Is it Ontario?

Who else is so technology challenged, who else was called Onts, who else owes you dinner yes its the lad from the colonies.

Well the clues are all there.

How you doing? It's been a while!

Not doing too bad, finally the summer as arrived and its getting really hot.
Spending a lot of time up at the house we bought two years ago, its on the banks of Lake Huron and its really a relaxing get away.
Ive missed everyone, for some reason fb doesnt do it, same as Claretsmad. Its good for the news but unless you get the right people on its just not the same.
Hows about you, saw you were in Barcelona standing in the same spot as me just a few years on, well a lot of years on.

Summer?! What's that ..?

I've missed everyone too, and I know what you mean about FB. Life's changed quite dramatically for me since we were all on 606, but it makes me feel nice and at home talking to you guys on here again.

Really? Which spot was that? Placa de Cataluyna? Barca was utterly amazing!! I want to go back. Permanently.

In the stadium, not sure if its still there but they had burnt remains from when Rangers played there and they left them as a reminder.
Yes its a very beautiful city, loved all of it and would probably go there again. Liked the Cathedral and the area around there, found it very cultured.

I didn't see any burnt remains while I was there, so I'm guessing not. Did the football museum exist when you were there? That was awesome ... could've spent all day in there just looking at stuff belonging to football legends.

Didn't get to go to the area around the Cathedral for as long as we wanted - we only had a weekend and there was so much to do. And there was the small matter of the Champion's League final to watch while we were out there. It was just amazing.

There was a museum but not very large, although a big team in Spain and the team of Catalonia (?) they were not the dominant force that they are now.
We stayed (wife #1) near Lloret de Mar in a smaller resort called Calella.
For me the highlight was going to the Black Statue of the Madonna (not to be mixed with the Madonna with the big boobies) in the Montserrat mountains. Funny how in later life I have been to Loreto in Mexico (wife 2) (on the Baja) and my favorite island is Montserrat (wife 2 and partner 3). I guess that part of Spain had more influence than I thought.

The museum now's probably worth the cost of the flight alone. I saw Thierry Henry's boots.

We stayed right in the centre of the city, which was pretty good seeing as we had limited time to see the sights. If we'd had more time I would've definitely gone to Montserrat (the Spanish mountain, not the island ) as I've heard it's pretty special out there. I think my highlight must've been seeing the Sagrada Familia - Gaudi was some sort of crazy genius.

The Gaudi building, that was different, it is a very beautiful city, do they turn the lights on the hill at night? I thought that was pretty spectacular.

I don't remember seeing the lights on the hill ... presumably I would've done if they'd actually done it.

I want to go back now!!!

Patience dear girl, see other parts of the world and then go back.

Who's given this beautifully written, concise and on topic article two stars?!

If I catch them ...

There that pushed it up a little, funny thats what the doctor said today.

This reminds me of the old days.

AA?! You got Chris' PM?

Oh thank you Onts! Nice bit of double entendre there too.