Clarets Blog: Mee will have won royal approval (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Clarets Blog: Mee will have won royal approval

8:37am Tuesday 21st February 2012 in Stephen Cummings By Stephen Cummings , Burnley FC fan columnist

So now we know; the next king of the realm won’t just have blue blood coursing through his veins, there’ll be a liberal dash of claret in there too.

Last week’s revelation that Prince Charles is a Burnley supporter won’t have pleased everybody – certainly not the anti-royalists among us.

But it definitely puts our nearest and not-so-dearest rivals in the shade, who can only wheel out the likes of Jim Bowen and Lee Mack when it comes to celebrity endorsement.

That said, the decision to despatch a VIP season-ticket to Buckingham Palace was, perhaps, a trifle optimistic.

It requires something of a leap of the imagination, for example, to picture the Prince of Wales pitching up for the Millwall game this weekend, tucking into a Holland’s meat and potato pie and leading a robust chorus of “No, Nay, Never” from the top of the James Hargreaves Stand.

Nor is it easy to visualise the future monarch nursing a post-match pint of Moorhouses in The Lounge while holding forth on the squad’s short-comings, or turning keyboard-warrior and posting messages on fan’s forums under the moniker “ClaretCharlie.”

Naturally, one wonders if Charles managed to settle down in front of the (royal) box on Friday night, to watch the Clarets take on (appropriately enough) the Royals.

If so, HRH will probably have been encouraged and frustrated in equal measure.

Encouraged, because between them, Jay Rodriguez and Charlie Austin had enough opportunities to win the game.

Frustrated, because, as has become par for the course this season, the Clarets’ wide players struggled to have much influence on the game.

Ross Wallace is the pick of the wing-men and has produced moments of genuine quality this term: but not on a consistent basis.

Keith Treacy might argue that he’s been hampered by not having a decent run in the side.

But given that when he is involved, he spends so much of the game on its periphery, there is no real incentive for the manager to include him in the starting 11.

And Messrs Stanislas and McQuoid are clearly not the answer.

It would be remiss of me to close this week’s column without applauding Ben Mee’s extraordinary act of bravery in putting his head in the way of a flying boot.

If ever there were an instance of a defender putting his body on the line, this was surely it. One instinctively feels Burnley’s latest high-profile fan would have given it royal approval.