For
those of us that travelled to this game it will long be remembered, and for something that
has absolutely nothing to do with game at all. More of that later, but first let's set the
scene.
Only eight hardy souls were on the trip so soon after
the disappointment of Saturday’s defeat at Wolves, where the general consensus was
that we had played well, defended particularly well and been slightly hard done by to come
away with nothing. But here was a different game; the first three had all been against
teams expected to be in the top ten at the end of the season. Anything we got out of the
games would be a bonus, but this game was at home against a team that was expected to
struggle so we needed to get a result. For the first time in the league this season we
needed to go out and win a game. Then you consider the fact that one of our
‘easier’ games was against a side that in their last two visits to Turf Moor had
scored eight goals without reply.
Stan stuck with the side that had performed well at
Wolves with Payton still on the bench. Mullin, Branch, Mellon and Armstrong were keeping
him company. With Jepson injured we have no reserve keeper so it would be interesting to
know who would go in goal should a problem arise. Let’s hope it doesn’t.
Gillingham lined up as defensively as expected, with Asaba all alone up front and a packed
midfield stifling the play. This worked very effectively as the Clarets failed to register
a shot on target until a long range effort from Davis bobbled tamely up to their keeper
not long before half time.
The only things of note in the first half were a good
move from Gillingham, ending with a fierce Hessenthaler shot which bounced off the
Admirable’s crossbar in front of us at the Jimmy Mac end of the ground and a
particularly nasty tackle from Hessenthaler on Paul Cook in front of the Burnley dugout.
It was definitely a yellow card offence and could, for a different referee, have merited a
red one. Every time I’ve seen Hessenthaler I have been impressed. His passing,
tackling, work rate and levels of energy are always excellent and he leads his players by
example.
Having said that Gillingham came for a draw and wasted
time at every opportunity, and rarely supported Asaba, generally relying on set pieces to
produce any pressure. The most annoying thing was that the referee Mr Jones seemed quite
happy to let them carry on like that without intervening but most of the frustration was
born of Burnley’s inability to increase the tempo of the game. It was always too
pedestrian and too predictable and too often we gave the ball away once we got to the edge
of the Gillingham box.
As for the players: Crichton had little to do; Weller
was not really committing defenders; Briscoe was not getting forward enough; Cox was
marking Asaba well enough; Thomas had moved into midfield as he had no defensive duties
and Davis was seeing a lot of the ball but few players were offering opportunities for him
to do anything with it. Cook frequently wasted possession; Ball was hardly noticeable;
Little looked like our best option and was working hard but getting no change from the
Gillingham defence as was Andy Cooke and Phil Gray didn’t seem to want to make any
runs or show for the ball at all.
No changes for us at half time and we started exactly
as we had finished the first half. Obviously Stan didn’t like this, as he put all
three subs on simultaneously inside the first ten minutes to change things around. Weller,
Cooke and Gray made way for Payton, Mullin and Branch and we certainly looked a bit
brighter as the movement of Branch, Payton, Mullin and Little started to create a bit more
space. As Payton jinked past his man inside the box and fired an angled shot across the
goal Branch couldn’t quite get on the end of it, as it looked for all the world like
it would go straight in.
Unfortunately we also looked decidedly vulnerable on
the counter attack and we were still struggling to create any sustained pressure. Then a
disastrous hash of a control and clearance by Thomas let in Asaba, who for once had got
away from Cox, and he fired past the helpless Crichton. If Burnley had played nervously
before, they were petrified now, especially in defence as Gillingham grew in confidence
and broke incisively. I could see a repeat of last year all over again but we were still
fighting, and then a superb angled ball through the inside-right channel put Little into
the area; Payton had stolen a yard on the defence but Glen hesitated and held onto the
ball and it looked like the chance might have gone. Little then drilled the ball across
the six yard box from close range and Ashby at the near post stuck out a foot and diverted
it past the wrong-footed keeper. (Reminiscent of one or two of my own efforts as Whitto
will no doubt testify.)
Now it was gung-ho stuff as we by-passed the packed
midfield and pushed four up front at times. A couple of blocked shots and shouts for
penalties, as first a Gills defender appeared to handle the ball (clearly seen from The
Harry Potts stand but unnoticed by us in The Jimmy Mac), and then as the rebound fell to
Little and he shot a late challenge came in.
At the other end, the defence was twice carved open and
the Gills substitute Nosworthy first completely missed his kick and then mis-controlled
when in excellent positions. More than one of the Burnley players were struggling to keep
going; Davis, Little, Cook and Briscoe were all dead on their feet and the final whistle
was as much a relief as a disappointment. A point gained, although we had hoped for three.
The performance was not great but nothing to panic about yet.
On the train on the way back a fellow football
supporter spotted one of the Burnley shirts and struck up conversation. It’s always
nice to meet other fans and chat about players and games and exchange pleasantries. This
gentleman was a Rochdale fan from Aldershot (the only one I believe) and we realised very
quickly that he was not the average friendly fan, as he told us almost immediately how
much he hated Burnley. He then proceeded to spend most of the journey stood at our table
telling us:
1) How much better Rochdale were than Burnley because
they had beaten us in the pre-season friendly.
2) He only rated four current Burnley players, which
included Crichton but not Payton.
3) Andy Farrell was the worst player he had ever seen.
4) Rochdale will definitely make the play-offs this
season.
And so it went on… and on… and on… and
on. We thought he might have noticed when we started making snide remarks. ‘Of course
you’ve seen some bad players, you play in the lowest division in the league.'
‘You’ve only ever been promoted once haven’t you?’ The buffet car has
never done such good trade and the toilet visited so many times by so few in such a short
time. We then stopped talking and started reading and all he did was carry on talking and
trying to read over our shoulders!
But cometh the hour, cometh the man and that man is
Hozzo, the mild-mannered school teacher, who fortunately for him had been sat at the far
end of the carriage during all this. Within five minutes of him joining the table (we were
now taking it in shifts so there was always at least one spare seat) he had got rid of
him. All he said was ‘Why don’t you sit down and join us?’ and that was
that. He had to go. Cheers, Hozzo.
Two guys sat on the table across from us had seemingly
been listening to their personal stereos all the time but were in fits of laughter once he
had gone as they couldn’t believe the cheek of the guy. The moral of the story is
that if you meet a Rochdale fan from Aldershot wearing a dirty, signed ‘Steve
Lenagh’ (who?) shirt, run for your life as your very sanity depends on it.
Hozzo to
the rescue!