Rainmaster
Burnley 2 Crystal Palace 2, League
Cup, Tuesday 19 September 2000
Report by Becko
Why does it always rain on night matches at Turf
Moor? And why do Burnley always seem to be playing without studs?
Reverting to a 4-4-2 formation in the absence of
Weller and Little through injury, and with Greek keeper Michopolous making his debut,
Burnley started brightly. They knocked the ball about well, particularly through Paul Cook
on the left side of midfield, albeit without troubling the Palace keeper. After nine
minutes there was a foretaste of things to come. Palace were awarded a free kick just
outside the box. Michopolous and the wall took a long time to get organised, but when they
did Fan’s daisycutter was expertly turned round the right hand post by the keeper.
Despite thinking this would spur the Clarets on
– and indeed there was more pressure on the Palace goal – less than ten minutes
later Burnley fell behind. Repetition in Burnley: we always go behind before gaining a
draw at home these days. In an attempt to get Burnley moving forward quickly, Michopolous
threw the ball to Paul Cook. It was knee high as the attempted to lay the ball back to
Coxy, who was caught in possession by the impressive Leon McKenzie. He played the ball
through to the so-called dangerous Forsell, to fire the Eagles 1-0 up.
Andy Cooke brought a fine save from the Palace
keeper ten minutes later and Micky Mellon replaced Paul Cook in a tactical change to try
to turn things round. Thus we reverted to 3-5-2. So, 1-0 down at half time, but there had
been some encouraging moves from the Clarets.
I was left feeling numb less than one minute
into the second period when Burnley dallied over getting the wall right for a Palace free
kick. Tommy Black took the kick quickly, and that was 2-0 while Burnley were still
standing still.
Fortunately the tie is still alive thanks to
Burnley’s battling spirit. Micky Mellon played as good a game in Claret and Blue as
I’ve seen from him. He was instrumental in mist attacks and put over the corner for
Andy Cooke to scramble us back into the game on 67 minutes. Just before that Bradley
Maylett replaced John Mullin and looked confident on the ball, but confirmed he
wasn’t wearing studs when he attempted to cross the thing, as he couldn’t keep
it in play on more than one occasion.
The key moment came with 15 minutes to go. Davis
brought down McKenzie. I think it was a foul. It was clumsy, but if you don’t wear
studs you’ll probably fall. Fan became the fourth Palace player this season to miss a
penalty when the Rainmaster guessed correctly and dived to his left to save. Even better
was the dive at Clinton Morrison’s feet to block the follow-up, because to be fair it
was probably the worst penalty I’ve seen.
In the last two matches blatant penalties have
been turned down for Burnley, so it was ironic that Mr Dean from the Wirral gave us a
dodgy one with seven minutes to go. Fortunately Andy Payton, (who kept his record of
scoring in each cup game this season – let’s have a few in the league now)
doesn’t miss many. This was no exception. I hope the Palace players weren’t
taking notes if it goes to spot kicks next week in the second leg.
The visitors played well for the remainder of
the game. Far from defending deep (like we do) they kept attacking, and Andy Linighan hit
the post from a corner with a free header.
Ronnie was now on for Branch, who had played at
left back, left wing back and up front in a three man attack. His presence in the box in
the wet caused more than a few problems.
Finally Brad Maylett had a chance of glory in
the 3rd minute of injury time, when the ball broke to him inside the
Eagles’ box. However, instead if hitting the target from six yards he skied it
towards the top end of the Cricket Field Stand.
At 2-0 down you have to be thankful for a draw,
but we seem to be making it hard for ourselves by giving the opposition a head start. I
think it’s easier (if that’s the right word) to go away and let the opposition
attack us than play at home where we have to take the game to the visitors. What do you
think?
Team:
Michopoulos, Thomas, Davis, Cox, Branch (Jepson), Mullin (Maylett), Ball, Briscoe, Cook
(Mellon), Cooke, Payton. Subs not used: Crichton and Lee.
Scorers: Cooke
(68), Payton (pen 83) / Forsell (17) Black (47).
Attendance:
5,889.
Referee: M Dean
of the Wirral.
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