THE long wait is over after 35 years with such a wonderful and well deserved victory.

This small squad have already done the town proud. Now that we have got the monkey off our back we can concentrate on these final 12 games for the goal these fantastic Clarets fans want. Promotion.

It all starts again tonight, at Birmingham City.

We must be careful to guard against complacency at such an important stage of the season.

I’m pretty sure manager Sean Dyche won’t allow that to happen.

He’ll have it all mapped out for tonight and Saturday’s visit of Leeds, when we’ll be looking to extend our unbeaten home run.

Yesterday was 365 days since our last home defeat in the Championship. It would be fantastic if we could go the full season now.

But let’s for a moment bask again in our brilliant derby win.

Burnley boss Dyche – very aptly called the Ginger Mourinho – outwitted Gary Bowyer with his double substitution.

I thought Bowyer should have left David Dunn on too because his passion and hatred of Burnley is second to none, and he nearly engineered a second goal for Rovers when he sent Jordan Rhodes clear, only for him to hit the upright.

That would have made it 2-0 for him and for Rovers. For the first time in years we had a lucky break.

It could well be the last time this famous derby is played for a while if we go on and get automatic promotion and Rovers miss out on the play-offs.

Finally, I was very pleased when all the Burnley supporters remembered Henry Tattersall with a minute’s applause in the 13th minute, and went on to back the Clarets vocally. They were superb for the 90-plus minutes.

I congratulate them for their support, and good behaviour, and ask them all to keep it up for the rest of the season.