Ally MacLeod was a confident man; after taking Ayr United back to Scottish First Division in 1966, he was asked to predict the outcome of his team’s opening fixtures. Clyde? ‘Win’, he said. Hibernian? ‘Win’, Motherwell? ‘Win’. Hearts? Dundee? Falkirk? – ‘Win, win, win’.

Celtic?

Macleod paused contemplating the outcome of playing the league and soon to be European champions ‘Win’.

How could he be so confident? He was asked. 

“Well, after all those wins.” He said, “They’ll be absolutely terrified.” 

Granted, MacLeod was a bit eccentric, when manager of Scotland he organised a World Cup victory parade at Hampden Park in front of thousands of fans before the team left for the 1978 World Cup (and failed miserably), but we all want to see patterns where they don’t exist, it gives us a sense of control and certainty.

After a perfect opening to our home campaign, it would have been easy to be drawn into the fiction of ‘fortress Kassam’ where all visitors are put to the sword in front of a carnival crowd. That said, pragmatists still expressed a concern about what would happen when reality bites and the sequence ends. Would it be so soul crushing that it’d send us into a doom loop right back to where we should be?

The visit of Burnley promised to test the strength of our resolve. I still struggle to reconcile them as a ‘big club’ despite them spending eight of the last ten years in the Premier League. After spending something like £50m on players this summer, we may be in the same division, but we’re not in the same league.

This is a new collective mindset for us, apart from the odd cup game, in the last fifteen years we’ve expected to be competitive against teams in our division. Now we’ve got to get used to the idea there are chasms football alone won’t bridge.

However, if Siriki Dembele cost around £1m and Burnley’s Wilson Odebert nearly £30m, it doesn’t mean Odebert is thirty times better. Much of that fee is an insurance, they may have similar ability, but Odebert’s more likely to demonstrate it on a regular basis. It’s an important distinction, on any given day, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t at least try to compete. The question is how you do it.

This was an examination more than a game, the benefits of suckling on the Premier League teat were evident from the start. Although the trappings of modern football were familiar; play from the back, control the ball, possession, possession, possession; the speed at which Burnley could execute it was an entirely different to what we’ve experienced before.

You suspect Des Buckingham was in his element, lightning fast and technical, the brain impulses pumped through him as he calculated and re-calculated. With an already disrupted midfield, he also re-constructed the back line with Ciaron Brown stepping into left back to make space for Ben Nelson. Later Burnley fans would argue that we’d ‘parked the bus’. This is always a lazy observation; having a defensive mindset is not passive, it requires as much discipline and concentration as open attacking football. It’s also about accepting your reality and dealing with it.

The two managers stood in their technical area, Scott Parker was all designer clothes and a perfectly quaffed mop of hair. Buckingham chose more centrist dad aesthetic in hoody and cargo trousers. On his back, the slogan ‘Boys Get Sad Too’, acknowledgement that the death of Jack Badger still permeates the club, not everyone knew him but most know people like him. Buckingham’s subtle, perfectly pitched demonstration is a further reminder that his emotional intelligence more than matches his technical ability. The minute’s applause that rippled around the stands in the twenty-fourth minute doesn’t seem enough, but for Jack Badger’s family and friends and perhaps for some in the stands, it might help a little bit.

The applause reminded us how slowly time was passing, we were holding Burnley but being pulled around was tiring minds and bodies. There was little visible damage, but each thrust of speed or momentary panic in the back-line would likely leave its mark for later in the game.

Despite the pressure, we were limiting them, it felt like a cup game. As the second half progressed, they occupied more and more territory. The ball would shift from one side to another, the control was crisp, the passing accurate. As they found another enclave, they stepped forward as a unit, we readjusted. It was so achingly technical, but there was a beauty in it. Like watching a murmuration of crows, moving in perfect unison.

We were holding, but with quarter of an hour to go they we practically camped on the edge of our penalty box. Des Buckingham knew we couldn’t endure the pressure. He brought Kyle Edwards and Owen Dale to the touchline. Both are returning from injury, they didn’t feel like game changers.

‘Oh god, now they’re bringing on players I’ve heard of’ said Brinyhoof as the lumbering frame of Jay Rodriguez was introduced by Parker. It felt like we were weakening while they were strengthening. This is what £50m buys you.

Despite the intense pressure and heavy mental load, Buckingham’s thinking remained clear. Edwards and Dale weren’t there to outwit or outpace, they alongside Dane Scarlett were a guerilla operation. If we couldn’t play through the Burnley press, we simply needed to occupy the space behind them. It gave them something different to think about. It was like the Ukranian Kursk Offensive into Russian territory. 

The effect was instant, suddenly we had movement, physically we couldn’t overload them but mentally we were occupying a different space. Their single forward gear now needed to adjust, the new challenge of Edwards and Dale meant they had to switch up their thinking. The vice was released, we may even have scored. Those who criticised Dane Scarlett for not chasing a ball down were missing the point, this was about dealing with the reality in front of us.

In the end, it was comfortable and deeply satisfying, another point towards survival. The final whistle was greeted with a big roar, not out of relief, but because we appreciated the challenge we’d faced and how we faced it. There was an intelligence in our collective thought. Perhaps it’s underwhelming to celebrate a draw at home, maybe it’s tinpot. But, it just reinforces that for the moment we’re a club that knows itself well and is in perfect alignment.