How many times have we heard Sean Dyche tell us that luck tends to even itself out over the course of the season? And that we shouldn’t worry too much when decisions go against us.

Sometimes that’s easily quantifiable, as the ‘incident’ takes place during our game and concerns our players. Jeff Hendrick’s handball against Brighton springs to mind. But sometimes, just sometimes, gifts present themselves without us even kicking a ball. 

Take last weekend, for example. The Clarets racked up a fantastic win on Saturday, over a newly-promoted Wolves side that has been a classy outfit this season. And the restoration of a 5-point gap between us and the relegation zone made us all breathe a little easier.

Except, come Sunday, with about 10 minutes to go at the Cardiff City Stadium, it looked to the world as if Cardiff were about to pull off a bonus victory against top six side Chelsea. Surely someone would give us a break here?

Step forward Craig Pawson and his officials. Now, Clarets fans know all about Pawson and have probably lost count of the number of shocking decisions that have cost the Clarets games.

But the villain turned hero when he, or more specifically his linesman, failed to spot just how far Azpilicueta was offside before heading the ball into the back of the net. Our friend Warnock was still incessant with rage as Loftus-Cheek completed the turnaround. 

It’s hard to feel too sorry for Cardiff. From a purely on-the-pitch perspective anyway. Despite Warnock’s claims that they’ve been the unluckiest team in the league this season (and, granted, the Sala incident was as heartbreaking as it was shocking), they’ve reaped the benefit of variance as much as the rest of us.

Anyone else remember that injury time winner against Brighton that was both offside and a handball?

The main takeaway from the weekend has to be that the Clarets took care of their own business. It was the classic home victory we’ve come to expect of a Sean Dyche side.

It was Boy Wonder Dwight McNeil who eventually wrapped it up and put the icing on the cake of a remarkable week. Fist England call up. Training with the seniors. Firing your team to a very important victory. Chapeaux son. 

I leave you this week with a thought I’ve been pondering; could last season’s youth player of the year really take home the same accolade for the first team in a few weeks’ time? 

UTC 

Natalie Bromley is editor of the No Nay Never Podcast