Sometimes there is a depressing inevitability about watching Burnley. Is it just me, or do we always manage to under-perform or quite simply bottle it when the going gets tough and the pressure is on?
Grimsby, in a strange quirk of fate, have their last three fixtures against play off contenders. If you were the Grimsby manager which fixture would you believe to be your best chance of the three points, Norwich, BURNLEY or Millwall? No question, is there?
Unusually Stan Ternent kept an unchanged side for this game, deciding to stick with the side that had despatched Gillingham a week earlier. In a game that was vitally important to both sides for vastly differing reasons, the Mariners started, Burnley didn’t.
A local taxi driver had warned us that in Boulding and Allen, Grimsby had a talented and pacy strike force. Boulding, a semi-professional tennis player, in particular was jet heeled. What I want to know is, if taxi drivers can see the strengths of a side, why can’t our management team? Playing the lethargic quartet of West, Davis, Gnohere and the comatose Thomas was always going to cause us problems. It’s no use trying to make excuses, like we have no one else; it is indicative of the problems that we have faced this season that we quite simply do not the strength in depth to cope with injuries and suspensions. We were always going to be found out eventually – and we have. To challenge at this level we need players at least equal to the ability of the player that we lose to come in and replace them. This is not the case. Let’s look at the evidence: out goes Ian Cox and in comes Mitchell Thomas. Thomas did an excellent job in our Second Division promotion season, but he is two years past his sell by date, his legs have gone, and Ternent is quite simply embarrassing him by continuing to pick him. He is continually beaten for pace, and it is quite simply not enough to have experience in this league.
Attacking options are no better. If Glen Little is out, who is the natural replacement? ‘One for the future’ (Ó
Stan Ternent 1998) Brad Maylett. How long can a player be one for the future? Maylett is not good enough to play at this level; he may progress into an average Third Division player, but he has not improved in the last three years.
I could go on. All over the pitch we don’t have replacements that can do the same job to the same standard as our first team. Make no mistake about it, if we can get our best XI on the pitch we have a good solid outfit, although this of course depends on Ternent being able to make up his mind who exactly are the best XI and then what tactics and formation to play them in. Time after time this season he has tinkered with the tactics and it has begun to cost us dear.
Anyway, the match report.
Five minutes. Badly out of form Glen Little lost the ball in the middle of the pitch. The ball was played through to Boulding, who outpaced West on the wing before cutting inside and easily beating Davis before planting the ball past Michopoulous and into the corner of the net. 1-0.
Eight minutes. Burnley won throw in. Threw it to opposition. Doh!
Eleven minutes. 2-0. Michopoulos failed to hold Poulton’s shot and Allen tapped in the rebound.
Sixteen minutes. Burnley corner. Briscoe found the Grimsby goalkeeper, who rose unchallenged in a packed area to claim the ball.
Twenty-five minutes. Ian Moore made a splendid run into the box, and advancing on the keeper fell over and shinned the ball back to him. Yes a pattern is developing!
Forty-two minutes. Boulding collected the ball and moved into the area. Out came Michopoulos, who decided that the best course of action as a goalkeeper was to lunge at their fleet footed forward with his feet. To be kind to our Greek custodian with the gloves on his feet, he did force the striker wide; on the downside, he still bloody scored. Personally I’m disappointed he didn’t fall over and shin it in just to really take the piss, or perhaps he could have placed the ball on the goal line, in a similar way to what you did when you were at school, and allow our non-hand-using goalkeeper to head the ball over the line.
As a member of the goalkeepers' union I don’t normally give keepers stick, well certainly not those on my side, but sadly it’s time to say bugger off Nik, go home, you reached your peak some time ago, and it’s been all downhill since. It is totally obvious that our defenders have no confidence in him, although to be fair he probably doesn’t have any confidence in them - I certainly don’t - but then again, it doesn’t look as though they trust each other either.
Regardless of whether we make the play-offs now, and it’s looking bleak, it is time for a cull. I hereby start a debate on this website. Who should go? All articles, rants, death threats (Wimbledon fans only please) to the usual address.
Personally my foot and mouth list is as follows. For the funeral pyre… Michopoulos, Thomas, Ball, Johnrose, Armstrong, Tony Bloody Grant, Maylett, Papadopoulos and Shandran. What do you think?
Things have to change. Yes we’ve had a good season, and it is true that we have not been this high for decades, but that doesn’t mean that we should accept the rubbish that has been served up after Christmas because of that. All clubs must aspire to be better. I know we can’t compete with Wolves and Man City and the likes, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be ambitious. It is not good enough to start the season well and then produce relegation form after Christmas.
I don’t care whether you support Real Madrid or Rochdale, all clubs need to aspire to greater things. It is truly ridiculous to say that we should be satisfied with what we’ve got. Yes, we are in a better position than we have been for years, but we must keep on improving. It is no good sitting there now and saying that we’ve never had it so good; I want it to get better. Whether that happens or not is down to the vagaries of football, but I’ll be bloody annoyed if we don’t try, and it is quite clear to me now that the squad we have is nowhere near good enough. It has been found wanting at the crucial moment. We have made one good signing since the start of the season and that is David Johnson. Whether we are ambitious enough to hold onto him is questionable, but we will be a better team for it. It’s time to get rid of the dead wood and start re-building and then maybe, just maybe, we will be able to compete under pressure.
Congratulations on your reprieve, Grimsby. You deserved it. And for Burnley’s end of season report? Must do better. Here’s hoping Stockport do us a favour on Sunday (fine chance!).
You Gave Me A Mountain