After Michael McIndoe took advantage of a defensive mistake to grab his and Barnsley’s second goal of the game it looked inevitable that I would be writing another of my infamous gloom-and-doom reports, a certain Gifton Noel-Williams, however, had other ideas.

Transfer-listed in the summer and booed onto the pitch on Saturday, few would have predicted that Noel-Williams, who scored just two goals last term, would be the hero of the night, despite his promising start to the season.

Barnsley were the visitors to Turf Moor on ‘ticket checking night’, having earned themselves a reputation as being the ‘Comeback Kings’ of the Championship, with the Tykes having to come back from behind in both their wins, away from home at Hull and Colchester. Half time on Saturday saw them trailing 2-0 to our next opponents Stoke City, but they again pulled goals back and ended up earning a point.

Despite publicly claiming that he was pleased with the team’s efforts

against Colchester on Saturday, Steve Cotterill decided to change his lineup and formation for the clash of the roses. Frank Sinclair and Kyle Lafferty dropped to be bench, replaced by Michael Duff, who slotted in at right-back, and Wade Elliot who started on the right side of midfield in a 4-4-2 two formation. Alan Mahon played wide left and Jones partnered Gray upfront.

Burnley began the game brightly, keeping possession and passing the ball well and John McGreal could have sent Burnley into an early lead but his header was easily held by the visiting ‘keeper, Nick Colgan. Micah Hyde was next to test Colgan, hitting a shot from the edge of the area after Jones did well to get past two defenders and pull the ball back to the Clarets number 18, whose shot unfortunately lacked the power needed to trouble the keeper.

Despite early domination, Barnsley were agonisingly close to taking the lead when Paul Reid’s shot deflected goalwards. Brian Jensen, already diving in the opposite direction, managed to pull off a magnificent save with his feet to keep the scores level.

Andy Gray was unlucky to see his header go wide on the 20 minute mark but seconds later McIndoe gave the visitors the lead and then doubled it minutes later. They were both very poor goals to concede, McGreal and Thomas were caught too far upfield for the first, and Michael Duff was caught in possession for the second. At 2-0 down, especially after Saturday, you thought it was one of those days again where everything fell for the opposition.

We began to loose concentration following the goals and the rest of the second half saw the ball given away far too easily and we were giving away needless free-kicks. The game changed completely, however, when Gifton Noel-Williams came onto the field in place of Alan Mahon, who looked to be struggling. Our next attack saw Elliot cross the ball into a crowded penalty area, where it clearly struck a Barnsley defender’s arm, yet somehow the referee decided against giving us the penalty and waved play on- the defender in question was left with his arm clearly in pain for the next minute or so.

Our very next attack, however, we found the breakthrough when Gifton Noel-Williams was brought down outside the box earning us a free-kick, which Jon Harley hit into the bottom corner of Nick Colgan’s goal to get us back into the game. The referee made another controversial decision just before the half time break, deciding to give us a free-kick in our own half and not playing advantage, where Steve Jones would have been through on goal.

The half time whistle came, however, with the score at 2-1 and I had mixed feelings as I went to get my half time hot dog. We were behind, but the last few minutes of the second half since Gifton came on were very promising indeed.

There was some what of a delay for the start of the second half, the Burnley players were out on the pitch, as were the Barnsley players- the referee and his assistants, however, were not. After a few minutes of waiting, they finally arrived to a chorus of boos from the home fans after a poor first half. We began the second half as we started the first, passing the ball around well and keeping the ball.

Gifton was having a fantastic game, winning headers, flick-ons, holding the ball up, running into space and after being denied a couple of times in the second half already, on 57 minutes the big man got what he deserved as he pulled the clarets back level. James O’Conner won the ball in midfield and played it into Wade Elliott on the right, Elliott produced a fantastic cross and Gifton finally got that goal, his first in a year, with a firm header.

Turf Moor was electric; the fans delighted to have got the goal, but also delighted for Gifton- as were the team, every player in Burnley colours ran over to congratulate him, even the Beast. That goal meant a lot to Gifton and he deserved it after his last few performances.

The crowd were really up for the game now and sensed that Burnley could even go on to win it – and that we did. Full of confidence and with the crowd singing his name, Gifton Noel-Williams went on to score two in the

final ten minutes, his first was a fantastic shot that crept in via the cross bar and for his third he latched onto a poor Micah Hyde shot to direct the ball past Colgan to complete his first ever career hat-trick. The Beast was up again and the whole team congratulated Gifton, who was clearly delighted, by all diving on top of him and creating a pile of claret and blue.

Gifton almost went on to grab a fourth but his powerful shot went just over the bar and the final whistle blew to the sound of ‘Gifton Noel-Williams’, the crowd were loving him and this was certainly his night. Although Gifton was by far man of the match, not just for his goals, but his all round performance, James O’Conner must also be praised for a great game.

After Saturday’s defeat it was all doom-and-gloom amongst Burnley fans and after the second went in last night everyone thought that the game was over, one guy behind me promised to run around Burnley naked if Burnley got all three points- I wonder if he did?

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O’Connor, Micah Hyde, Alan Mahon (Gifton Noel-Williams 34, Kyle Lafferty 90), Andy Gray, Steve Jones (Chris McCann 85). Subs not used: Frank Sinclair, Stephen Foster.

Barnsley: Nick Colgan, Bobby Hassell, Antony Kay, Paul Reid, Robbie Williams, Martin Devaney, Sam Togwell, Brian Howard, Michael McIndoe, Paul Hayes, Mark Richards (Tommy Wright 71). Subs not used: Vito Mannone, Paul Heckingbottom, Colin Healy, Nicky Wroe.