YOU may have read that interview with Michael Keane last week – the one where he revealed that he was so heavily concussed following a clash of heads in our game against Rotherham that when the physio treating him asked the defender what year it was, he replied that it was 1996.

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Burnley supporters could be forgiven for feeling a similar sense of dizzying disorientation given the almost dream-like quality of events of the last seven to 10 days.

While the Clarets picked up nine points with a history-making win over Blackburn Rovers, a swashbuckling 3-2 victory over Fulham and an impressively businesslike 3-1 success at Huddersfield, their fellow promotion-contenders either spectacularly fluffed their lines or suffered a severe attack of the jitters.

“Another absolutely outstanding week” was Sean Dyche’s assessment, which – all things taken into account – left him wide open to accusations of understatement.

Derby County followed up a midweek loss at Queens Park Rangers by contriving to throw away a three-goal lead in seven minutes to leave them 13 points shy of Burnley and in danger of losing out on a play-off place.

Hull City, meanwhile, huffed and puffed to a 1-1 draw at MK Dons. Yet it fell to Middlesbrough to provide a masterclass in how to bottle it with the finishing line in sight.

Losing 1-0 to 22nd-placed Rotherham was embarrassing enough.

But to then have your manager flounce out before going down 2-0 to a Charlton Athletic side second only to Bolton Wanderers in the division’s car-crash stakes is a comedy act unlikely to be bettered this term. It’s a week from which ‘Boro may not recover. You couldn’t blame Mel Morris and Steve Gibson, chairmen at the iPro Stadium and the Riverside respectively, for casting an envious glance at Burnley and wondering just what their secret is.

Derby, for example, have spent upwards of £25 million to effectively stand still.

And in the January transfer window, Karanka was allowed to splurge £9m on luring Jordan Rhodes to the north-east.

Dyche, meanwhile, brought in a 33-year-old winger deemed surplus to requirements at Watford on a free.

Whatever Dyche is doing, it’s clearly working a treat. The Clarets have picked up an astonishing 36 points from the last 42, opening up an impressive/daunting (depending on your point of view) seven-point gap at the summit.

With nine games to go, nothing has been decided.

But with every passing week, it becomes increasingly difficult not to imagine Burnley rubbing shoulders with the big boys come August.