John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: I was right to be shaking all over before kick-off

​Even though we had won four out of our last five games on the road, I was fearing a drubbing at this venue similar to the 5-0 defeat in September 1960 when Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were riding high in the top ten with "Shaking All Over".

It was an apt description of how I felt as kick-off time at Turf Moor approached.

It was our first visit to this stadium in more than seven years and with Burnley having won their last nine league games on the bounce, any points from this fixture certainly looked a very tall order on paper.

On our last visit here Burnley coincidentally had not lost for nine league games but on a memorable day we had managed a 2-0 victory on that occasion.

The forever blind optimistic streak in me needed when following North End was hoping against hope for a similar outcome on Saturday.

However tthough as it turned out in my mind this game was lost as early as the 15th minute once our hosts had taken the lead.

In the second half the game was definitely over before the hour mark when Burnley added a further two goals.

The easy win for our hosts put them well on course for a fourth successive promotion to the Premier League since 2010.It really is something to be jealous about as through the dark times of the 80s and 90s our paths with our local rivals had followed the same trajectory.

At the same time as our East Lancashire rivals were making progress in June 2010 our club was being took over by the biĺionaires of the Hemmings family.

Since then and the subsequent appointment of football guru Peter Ridsdale, one year later we have failed to make the play-offs at this level a feat achieved four times between 2000 and 2009 before the present hierarchy took control.

Rightly or wrongly the failure of this is a source of much bitterness and criticism aimed at Mr Ridsdale himself which he has tried to address over the years with several patronising statements.

In my opinion, the relationship between the fans and the club is almost at a low time ebb.

We have a manager who is clearly inexperienced at this level and as the weeks go by is losing the patience of an increasing number of our fans.

For me this situation really is a depressing state of affairs.

In a nutshell to sum up my day trip out to East Lancashire I find it appropriate to use the words of punk poet John Cooper Clark: "I’ll tell you now and I'll tell you firmly, I don't ever want to go to Burnley, what they do there does not concern me, why would anybody make the journey?”