Honorable
defeat in "Clarets' Cup Final"!
Burnley 2 Kevin Keegan's Manchester
City 4
Report by Hego
It’s not too often I bother having a go at opposing fans, as they really do not often
register on my consciousness. I cannot, however, let this bunch of arrogant w***ers get
away without the proverbial raspberry. It would appear Kevin Keegan’s Manchester City
deigned to visit our little town to participate in Burnley’s Cup Final against
‘the biggest and best team in the League’. Apparently the Claret fans only
turned up to see ‘The City’. Claims obviously made under the influence of drugs
or other mind-altering substances. Why did I take an instant dislike to these people? Well
it saves time, doesn’t it?
Anyway, yet another 550-mile round trip in
Bank Holiday traffic (no beer) to see a Clarets defeat. Not yer ordinary bog standard
defeat you understand, but a pulsating, terrific game in which the Clarets played a major
part despite the referee, in front of the TV cameras. Beautiful evening, immaculate pitch,
and a splendid view of the hills lit up by City’s fluorescent lime green socks, worn
specially to deal with the consequences of any floodlight failure. Welcome to the Pleasure
Dome! £2.50 for the programme, but a pretty good read. Needs to be for that price! The
pre-match entertainment was provided by a Claret fan singing Nessun Dorma, who just
happened to be a professional opera singer. Good idea, but hey this is the Club that
brought you dancing dogs, and of course the ‘technical’ problems saw off that
one until half time.
City without the injured Berkovic, but
including the Goat who always scores against us, an ex England Captain and two
Neanderthals recently let out by their keepers, masquerading as centre-backs. The Clarets
were surprisingly without super striker Moore A, who had strained his wallet or something,
but otherwise were unchanged following Saturday’s 2-0 win at the Zoo. Paul Weller
returned to sit on the bench for a while. This was a stroke of luck as there are two many
Moore’s for one match report.
The match began at a furious pace, but
somebody had forgotten to tell Cook and Ball as they were bypassed in midfield. Not quite
the heat induced slow pace at Millwall, and it showed. Goater and Wanchope’s
movement, particularly in the weak link left back (Armstrong) area was causing problems.
The former had the first chance of the night with a toe punt just wide in the tenth
minute. After a ‘mistimed’ tackle by Taylor got him a silly booking against his
old mates, the inevitable happened. A right wing near post cross from the ‘recently
exiled’ Edghill found Goater unmarked on the six-yard box, and he glanced home the
header with NTG transfixed on his line like a frightened rabbit. The ‘we want
six’ shout from the intellectually challenged in the away end was of course a
complete surprise.
City continued to probe, and Wanchope put an
unchallenged header just wide before the Clarets woke up. A deep corner in the 25th
minute from the left saw Davis rise unchallenged at the back post to head past the new
slim-line but still overrated Weaver. Pearce then got his inevitable yellow card for a
crude challenge on Moore, which led to a free kick to the Clarets in a dangerous position
around the box. This was, naturally, blocked by the new cut price Wilkes rule, which
allowed the City wall to stand no more than five yards from the ball. Brownie points in
KK’s referee match report, then. Indeed this happened on two further occasions as
Taylor was dumped by Howey, illegally. Little then had a goal bound shot cleared off the
line by Howey with the keeper beaten, before the turning point of the match.
Following a City corner, the ball was cleared
to Grant outside the box (didn’t we try to sign him?), who returned it with a full
force shot through a crowd of players. The ball hit Armstrong’s arm on its way over
the bar. Wilkes saw this as a fine opportunity to get in to the ex England manager’s
good books. A penalty and yellow card OK, but a red card offence, sorry no. Horlock’s
(Pearce?) miserable spot kick was easily saved by NTG to his left, but the real damage had
been done by the man in the black nylon. Stan immediately changed formation to a 3-5-1 by
bringing on Archie Nohair and pushing Moore back in to midfield.
Just before half time a great far post cross
from Little after a sharp interchange with Moore, having left Pearce for dead again, saw
Taylor miss a great chance with a diving header. Should have scored.
Half time saw Nessun Dorma vs Blue Moon, with
the inevitable winner the stylish Claret of course. The ITV Sport play-backs were pretty
useful in the food area, but where was the salt! Brian Flynn and Kevin Reeves appeared as
the half time special guests. The former hadn’t far to travel, after all.
The second half began at the same pace, with a
chance for Tiatto, running through unmarked on our right before he hashed his shot. A
sublime piece of skill at the other end from Little saw him nutmeg Pearce before chipping
a dipping shot in the style of Pele, over Weaver and unfortunately on to the bar. There
will never be a clone of this guy as he is un-copyable! We then fell behind again in the
49th minute, when a back heel deceived Briscoe before the ensuing cross met an
unmarked Wanchope’s diving head. The ball whistled past the rabbit staring into the
headlights.
The Light Brigade charged forward again, and
levelled inside two minutes, when Briscoe stabbed home the ball from close range after
City failed to clear innumerable Claret attempts at goal. A whole lot of noise emanated
from three sides of the ground. After, Horlock and Moore had two good efforts, the latter
driving from midfield towards goal like a sporting El Nino. Archie got away with a blatant
handball in the box before City restored their lead in the 61st minute, the
Goat obliging with a short-range finish after some aerial pinball should have been cleared
by the Clarets defence.
It was then all City as Wanchope hit the post
after a Briscoe error. Weller replaced the anonymous Cook and was promptly and
deliberately elbowed by the ex England captain Pearce. Off you might think, but then
again, no. Wilkes saw this incident clearly, gave a free kick, reprimanded Pearce and
received further brownie points from KK. Crap decision, and showed that he was creeping
towards the outer edges of reason. Bryan Robson used to get away with these things at the
end of his career too.
With ten minutes or so to go of normal time,
Payton replaced Briscoe. Don’t ask what formation we were playing then. Moore had a
great run and fired in a shot just wide, which would have been just deserts for a great
performance. Inevitably, however, it was the Goat who finished off the resistance in the
86th minute by waltzing round an immobile NTG before slotting the ball in to
the empty net for his hat trick. All was not finished however as a punch up in an
Executive Box was matched by Edghill and Archie. The latter also laid on a good chance for
Payton which Weaver saved well.
Standing ovation for the Clarets at the end of
the entertainment, and well deserved.
Although disappointed, I fully enjoyed this
game, particularly the spirit shown to come back twice from adversity. The team’s
confidence did not look to hide under the nearest rock as it has done so many times over
the years, and you do genuinely believe that they thought they could win right up to the
fourth goal. Quite proud of them all really, and as long as the main part of the first
team can stay fit, I can see no reason why we can’t do as well as last year.
It has to be said, however, that we were
totally outplayed in midfield, and struggled to come to terms with the movement of the two
up front. Davis was colossal despite the defence leaking four goals, but as Bill
O’Reilly once said when asked why he did not criticise an occasional flaw in Don
Bradman, ‘Mate’, (in an Australian tongue), ‘you don’t piss on
monuments’. Moore was fantastic and Little sublime in patches but a tad too nomadic
for my liking. Taylor had easily the best game I have seen him play, to the extent that
Howey continuously fouled him throughout the match. No yellow card for Howey of course,
who resembles something Damien Hirst could have exhibited and made a fortune from.
Interestingly, of that team of notables that
collapsed cravenly to Man City 6-0 on the 9th March 1999, only Davis, Little,
Armstrong and Payton were playing on Monday. How times change.
Team
(4-4-2 - initially): Michopoulos, West (Gnohere 37), The Legend, Cox, Armstrong,
Little, Ball, Cook (Weller 73), Briscoe (Payton 80), Moore, Taylor. Subs not used:
Cennamo and Ellis.
Crowd: 19,602 (No
way!).
Referee: Mr (KK
did I do OK?) Wilkes.
The away game and the previous home encounter
