Turf Moor Diaries: A Painful Day Of 'What-Ifs' Punctuated By A Big 'Why'

That hurt. It really did. And so now another long journey home from an away defeat pondering too many "what if" kind of questions.

The biggest what if concerns our left back Stephen Jordan. What if he hadn't been booked in the first half? Yeah, well he was, so more importantly, what if he had remembered he had been booked in the first half by the time we got into the second half? That would have helped.

Because biased though I am, and prone as I am to seeing no wrong in anything a Burnley player does while playing for Burnley, Jordan's second yellow card was not so much a shirt tug as an attempt at whole shirt removal. The tug was already well underway when we were shouting at him to stop it in case referee Howard Webb, who was far nearer the scene of the crime, saw what was going on. Webb doesn't miss much (though don't say that to Everton fans who might have seen a first-half Burnley handball in the Burnley box - I certainly did) and he couldn't miss Jordan's tussle.

I was a long way away from Owen Coyle and assistant manager Sandy Stewart as Jordan trudged by them and down the tunnel, but I could still feel the heat. There are times when a manager must feel badly let down.

The point is that there was no need to commit the foul. Even if Jordan had been beaten we had men back. It was not as if he was shutting down a certain scoring chance. So from "what if" we go to "why" and I can only assume that for some reason it slipped his mind that he was already on a yellow.

It had at times been hard enough to hold on with 11 v 11 let alone 11 v 10, though to be fair to the ten, they withstood phenomenal pressure and at times looked more likely to score. But once the dam broke, and substitute James Vaughan fired Everton into the lead, we knew it was going to be hard to get anything out of the game.

So we're back to more what ifs. What if David Nugent's shot had been one inch to the left of where he shot it? Then it would have hit the inside of the post, not the middle of it, and gone in. What if Chris Eagles had continued the fantastic box-to-box run which saw him turn successive Everton defenders inside out, rather than let Kevin McDonald take the final shot and put it over the bar? What if Webb had not booked Jordan in the first half? Sorry, am I repeating myself.

It was all so well set up. It felt like a great old-fashioned match at an old-fashioned stadium. It is 34 years ago this month when we last played at Goodison Park - we won 3-2 - and the place has hardly changed at all. I'd forgotten how many chip shops there were nearby. The only signs of modernity in the packed away end were the barcode machines to put your ticket in, and a TV hanging from an old roof so we could watch Spurs beat West Ham. I saw a few of the old turnstiles packed up against a wall. Very nostalgic. So were the toilets. Programmes were being sold from a booth that was almost certainly there back in the '70s. The Church at the corner of the home end was still peeking through behind the Chang Beer sponsored electronic scoreboard.

My ticket was for the front row of the lower tier which meant I had a nice welcoming puddle and stewards who happily let us stand for the first half but tried to get everyone seated for the second half. Odd.

I'd like to say there was a cracking atmosphere. But it takes two sets of fans to make that happen. Burnley fans were on good form and, as in previous defeats, barely anyone left before the end. Some of our loudest singing came directly after the two goals, and the majority stayed beyond the final whistle to acknowledge the Burnley players and coaching staff. By then they were taunting Everton fans with "shit ground shit fans". Buoyed by victory, the Everton supporters were able to laugh in our faces, but there was something in the charge. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me but I remember Goodison as a place that really rocked, but they were all a bit subdued today. Indeed they were the ones, after the first goal, who launched into "we only sing when we're winning".

They have therefore not had much cause to sing but will hope today's win represents something of a turning point. In the cab to the station however, the local radio phone-in was dominated by people moaning about Leon Osman, among others, and questioning David Moyes's team selection.

Coyle, with a squad not really big enough to lend itself to constant changes, selected exactly the same starting line-up and subs as he did for the draw against Bolton two days earlier. It says a lot for their fitness levels that Eagles and McDonald in particular were running as hard in the 93rd minute as they had been in the first.

But we already have two central defenders out through injury and now we have a left back who will be out through suspension. I know all teams get their share of injuries and suspensions. But if you have a squad as small as Burnley's you'd rather keep both to a minimum. Jordan has had a terrific season so far. But he really didn't help the cause today. Not to mention the mood on the 5.48 from Lime Street to Euston.