BALTIMORE, Maryland March 25, 2014 - I began this piece tonight just as Burnley was about to start their match against Doncaster. For the record, the Claret won, 2-0, behind goals by Sam Vokes and Junior Stanislaus. The former, along with Danny Ings, has carried the Claret all season offensively. They are both among the league leaders in goals. But Insgs is hurt and missed a second game. Vokes carries on without him. Stanislaus, on the other hand, has filled a role that is an essential one on a good team: that of a top reserve coming off the bench. But he started today. All game long he was hounding the Doncaster defense. Midway through the second half he scored.
As I began this piece (3:43 pm EST) Burnley was about to begin their important match against Doncaster. Danny Ings, one of the Claret's dynamic duo of goal scorers (the other is Sam Vokes, and I did not give them this tag) is not in uniform. It isn't unexpected. Ings didn't play against Charlton Athletic last Saturday. I believe he is officially, as they say in the United States, day-to-day. I hope that day is this Saturday when the Claret host first place Leicester City. Burnley is in second place in the Championship. The top two get promoted to the Premier at season's end. For the uninformed, Burnley was one of the original English Football teams when organized soccer began in 1888. But Burnley started playing soccer in 1882. They've been playing at legendary Turf Moor for nearly as long. They have played in all four of English Soccer's leagues (now called Premier, Championship, League One and League Two) and they have been champions of all four. But they have only played one season in the Premier or first division in the last 37 years. That was the 2009-2010 campaign. Anyway, the Claret are on the precipice of returning to the Premier. Going into the Doncaster match, they were ten points clear of Derby County and the Queens Park Rangers. They are five points behind Saturday's Turf Moor opponent: Leicester City. After the match, they were still five points behind Leicester, which also won its match. They were still ten points clear of Queens Park, which also won. They picked up points on Derby, which lost tonight to Ipswich, 2-1. Derby now trails the Claret by 13 points. In the Championship League, first place and second place are automatically promoted to the Premier League. The teams that finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth playoff against each other with the winner - but only the winner - getting the third promotion to the Premier. Burnley dearly wants the automatic promotion in the worst way. So do their extremely loyal and rabid fans (over 12,000 of whom were at Turf Moor on a cold damp Tuesday night. Today's opponent, Doncaster, isn't having the best of campaigns. They are, for the record, in 19th position among the League's 24 teams. With the few games that remain - Doncaster has eight left - and the number of teams that stand between them and sixth place (lowest position they can finish and still play off for promotion), even the slimmest chance of making the playoff is probably gone. On the other hand, there is only one team between them and relegation. After losing to Burnley today they still have 40 points. The three teams at the bottom all have 32 points. If one of those teams were to get hot, and if the one team standing between them and relegation, Charlton Athletic (35 points and one game in hand) manages to sneak past them over these eight games, then a disappointing season turns into a really bad season. The good news for Doncaster? It was up in the stands. Nearly 500 of the faithful made the trip to Lancashire. Go Rovers!
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