Before the audacious heist came James Tarkowski's secret mercy dash as Burnley's great escape gathered irresistible momentum.
The night before a dramatic win which made the Clarets favourites to cheat the hangman, defensive rock Tarkowski had left the team hotel and raced home to Manchester after a health scare involving his young daughter. When she was given the all-clear overnight, Tarkowski made a last-minute dash through the Bank Holiday weekend traffic back to Hertfordshire to link up with his team-mates in the nick of time.
At first, his rush back to the relegation front line seemed ill-fated as his early own goal left Burnley staring back into the abyss. And for three-quarters of a buttock-clenchingly poor contest, they were as blunt as your rusty garden shears until Jack Cork and Josh Brownhill's goals in the last seven minutes sparked wild celebrations in the No-Nay-Never chorus line.
