A fan's-eye view from Turf Moor, with Stephen Cummings

IT had to happen eventually. Over the course of a season it was more or less inevitable. Yes, readers, though it shames me to say it, Saturday saw your correspondent miss his first league match of the season. (Or as it describes it on the front of my season ticket "The Millennium Season").

The excuse? A fully booked up supporters club coach and no late cancellations.

Admittedly there have been two other indiscretions over the course of this campaign. I must admit to being absent for the second leg of our Worthington Cup tie against Manchester City. Eternal optimist that I am, not even I could see us overturning a 5-0 scoreline from the first encounter.

Had it only been 4-0 then obviously I would have been on like a shot.

The other fixture at which I was absent without authorised leave, was the Auto Windscreen clash against Wigan Athletic. The only defence I can muster is that particularly lame one trotted out as an excuse regarding any form of absenteeism in December, "well, it was Christmas."

The overwhelming emotion felt by missing a game is not anxiety, nor is it frustration, nor even disappointment. It is guilt. Which is strange really. Because like many, I have followed the Clarets the length and breadth of this green and sometimes not so pleasant land, having invested a small fortune both financially and emotionally in the process. And to be honest the returns have often been, how can I put this, less than immensely satisfying. So really, guilt is wholly inappropriate. But there you go.

There again, even if I had got a seat on the coach, there was no guarantee I would have seen the match. Major traffic problems on the M6 ensured a significant amount of travelling supporters missed a significant amount of the action. Quite why the kick off could not have been delayed for up to 45 minutes remains a mystery. As it probably does to those who travelled, arrived late and paid full price for less than a full match.

Another unfortunate side-effect of missing the game was listening to Gary Hickson on the phone-in. The concept of the programme is excellent, its presenter unfortunately is not. Still on the plus side it provided me with an excellent incentive to make absolutely sure I get on the coach for Bournemouth.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.