Cod show
me magic
Burnley 1 Grimsby 1, Saturday 16 September 2000
Report by Firmo
These, we all agreed when we got promoted, were
the season's big games. Forget the lure of Bolton and Wimbledon, put aside the visits to
Hillsborough and Molineux, ignore that sideshow of our matches against Blackburn. Received
wisdom was the games that mattered were those against sides that, if we wanted to stay up,
we might reasonably expect to finish below us. This was particularly true of home games
against teams such as Gillingham and Grimsby.
While you can't win every match, both of these
produced disappointing performances and results which look like points lost.
It was with an air of expectation that we took
our seats. This was my first trip back to Burnley since promotion, and we were bathed in
warm, surprising sun. I even had to take my jacket off! The assumption was that we would
win, and this was only strengthened by the news that Davis and Payton were both back in
the team. But it never got going. We were poor from the start.
Grimsby made the better beginning, and although
it would be nice to say it was surprising that they got the first goal, it wasn't.
Unfortunately we were unsighted by some late arrivals, but a shot was blocked, bounced
out, and the rebound was gleefully thumped in from a little further out than the edge of
the box. Another long shot goal conceded. The tiny Grimsby following, which would have
been a poor show one division down, duly celebrated.
We needed to get back into it quickly, and we
did. Before we could get too worried that we might lose, we were level. It was a decent
goal too, with more than a hint of the training ground about it. Paul Cook put in a good
cross to Cooke at the nearer post. Cooke's flicked header was for once precise and
decisive. We knew what the script was now: after that early scare we would settle into our
game, go on to overpower them, and win. Time for some songs about fish, my favourite being
'you must have come on a trawler', and settle back to watch the victory.
Of course, it never happened. Too many of our
important players didn't get into the game. Two of them were, in my view, not ready to
start. Grimsby's manager Lennie Lawrence knows Steve Davis quite well, and had joked in a
newspaper interview before the match that he hoped he wasn't fit enough to play. Perhaps
that gave us the spur to include him here. But although his inclusion might have made a
point, Davis played like someone trying to avoid trouble. This isn't his normal game. How
often do you see him hanging back when we get corners? Secondly, I yield to no man in my
admiration of Andy Payton, and I have criticised Ternent for keeping him on the bench, but
on this showing, perhaps he was right. Payton may be fit, but he wasn't sharp. Save for
one glorious chance in the second half, when he pounced on a loose ball in the box and
fired an instinctive shot, unfortunately straight at the goalkeeper, his predatory skills
looked blunted here. He wasn't getting to balls he would normally have snapped up. Perhaps
he just lacks match fitness, which of course you only get by playing, but by putting in a
less than usually effective performance, Payton served to emphasise how important he is to
the team as the only scorer of enough goals. We need another.
I hope we didn't start the game with two players
who were not ready because we thought we could get away with it against ‘a side
like’ Grimsby, as this would hint of complacency we cannot afford. Perhaps some of
the players found it hard to pick up the pace after putting up an excellent fight at
Planet Fulham midweek, but two games in a week isn’t too much to ask. And yeah,
Grimsby were bottom of the table, but all tables are false after six games. You have to
assume the opposition are better than their position indicates.
As well as this, Little had an at best fitful
game. Every other cross went haywire. The team struggled further when Weller went off,
apparently with a groin strain. Weller has become an important member of the team, and we
don't really have anyone else who can play in the same position as him. Mullin certainly
wasn't an adequate replacement. He had another anonymous game, part of a disappointing
series since the start of the season. He finished the last one so well. Crichton had a
poor game against one of his old sides, with his kicking going consistently awry, even
when not under pressure.
We didn’t make any real chances in the
first half, and Grimsby continued to look the more interested side. It was alarming to see
with what ease they got the ball into our penalty area. Once there, they didn’t do
much with it, possessing a somewhat lightweight attack, but they did not have to work too
hard to get into attacking positions. Midfield?
One other annoying thing from the first half was
that bloody announcer advertising the half time draw while the game was still going on.
What nonsense is this?
The second half brought some improvement,
particularly from Ball. I hope it was the result of a bollocking. I’m never convinced
by the ‘quietly effective game’ school of thought. If a player has a good game,
you should notice them having it. Ball’s contribution to the cause has been minimal,
and I need to see a few more aggressive spells like his second half one before I’m
convinced he brings anything to the party. Clearly Ternent had told him to fight for the
ball and get up in support of attacks, and he made some important tackles. Unfortunately,
he also had some shots. A couple of times the ball fell to him close to goal and he
produced hopelessly off the mark attempts. I think we can see why he's a defensive
midfielder. Still, marks for trying at last.
There are some other positives to take from the
match. Cox again looked the part, running the defence, with Davis trying to avoid trouble
and Thomas again showing worrying signs of fallibility. This was also Cooke’s best
game of the season, with his customary qualities of hard work and tenacity at last being
complemented by a goal. I'd love to be proved wrong about him. He continued to battle, and
should have won a penalty shortly before being taken off. A Grimsby player grabbed a
fistful of shirt and spun him round in the penalty area. This was as clear a penalty as
you’ll see, but he, and we, don’t seem to get them at the moment. We can point
to that and say we should have won it, but should acknowledge that if we had, it would
have been an undeserved win. It would have been one of those to emerge from raising a
rueful eyebrow.
They could have got something too. We cleared
off the line once. In general, they were quicker and sharper than us in midfield. They
passed to each other with precision; we couldn’t find our players. Even sides at the
bottom of this division need to be respected.
We had a spell of about five minutes where we
really went at them, and we all looked at each other and said, here we go, but it fizzled
out. We never produced a period of sustained pressure, and too often let the pace of our
game drop. Bringing Branch on for Cook was a positive move – I know, how times change
– and the maverick forward played as well as anyone else, but he’s rarely going
to be a match winner, and some nice skill from him wasn’t going to compensate for the
lack of cohesion in the team as a whole. Compared to this, Jepson’s late entry spoke
only of desperation. Much as we love the old hulk, his chief asset these days is getting
in the way, a more useful attribute when we’re trying to maintain a scoreline, not
change it. We really shouldn’t be needing a battering ram like him in this division,
and I can’t help feeling that flashing lights and sirens should accompany his
attempts to turn. As it was, he had one late chance, but put it across the face of goal.
It summed up a half when, albeit brighter than before the break, we simply didn’t hit
the target enough.
It was a disappointing game. Players had off
days and some were not fit, and while you’d like to think we had enough talent in the
side to carry it off despite this, it seems that, in this division, you can’t afford
passengers. It’s early days yet, and we should be wary of over-criticising – and
it should be stated that the support at the match was once again large and vocal –
but a few people are starting to say that Burnley aren’t up for the lesser games.
Except that, as we know, these are not the lesser games. I refuse to believe it, because I
don't doubt Ternent's professionalism or ability to prepare a side. I recall how Ternent
started last season cautiously, and then gradually we opened up. So don't panic - yet.
Team: Crichton,
Cox, Davis, Thomas, Weller (Mullin 35), Briscoe, Ball, Cook (Branch 62), Little, Cooke
(Jepson 84), Payton. Subs not used: Maylett and Mellon.
Scorers: Cooke
(19) / Butterfield (11).
Attendance:
15,413.
Referee: The
naive P Dowd.
London Clarets Man
of the Match: Ian Cox.
The away game
