Sometimes, though not often, you just wish that Stuart Hall was at the game and commenting on it for TV or radio. Such was the performance of one David Arthur Gnohere that I feel sure Stuart would have described him as 'a mighty colossus bestriding the Lancashire turf', and 'an almost impassable barrier upon which the waves of Preston's many attack foundered and made little impression'. He may also have added 'Showing all the strength and determination of a young Tony Adams allied to the subtlety of touch and composure under pressure of a much older Tony Adams'. To add 'and the speed across the ground and the finishing ability of a Lineker or Greaves in their pomp' would be taking it too far, but who cares? Enjoy this week, as being a supporter of the Clarets hasn't been this good for many, many years - but let's hope that the best is yet to come.
This was a special game for my family, as most of them live in Longridge, just six miles from Preston, and indeed my brother-in-law, Greg, is a Preston season ticket holder. (I trust Greg won't see this, Jane!) Generally, we keep it low key and don't make any predictions, but say that we would be happy with a draw. If some of the Preston fans (not Greg I hasten to add) want to tell us how well they will do and how we will get a hiding then fine, but we still remember the Sherpa Van semi-final in 1988. Nil-nil at Turf Moor and all the coaches and hotels booked for Wembley by the Preston fans before the Deepdale game! Oh, how we laughed after that extra-time victory. Having said that, I don't think our record at Deepdale is that great. A nil-nil draw two years ago and a 3-2 win courtesy of the lollipop man, Neil Moore, before that, are all I can recall in recent times, so we never look forward to the game. If we can get over it without my sister receiving too much mickey taking then we are happy. 'Cue a boring nil-nil draw' were my thoughts as I travelled up in the car on Friday.
A night out in Preston on Saturday with Woody and The Heads, plus an appearance from the Village Drunk, ended in the Old Black Bull, where Heads, at approximately 10.55, uttered the immortal line, "Nine pints of Cains, please." Had a coach load of London Clarets suddenly arrived behind me? No, there was definitely just three of us there, Village Drunk having bitten the dust after the New Brit. Fortunately drinking up time wasn't strictly adhered to, and we had a leisurely 45 minutes (yeah right) to polish them off.
Not surprisingly, I was a little bit rough the following morning, and after the trip across Preston, dropping Greg and his nephew nearer the ground, the pint in the Toby Carvery on Blackpool Road was not exactly welcome. Team news was phoned in by Razor, watching the game on ITV Sport.
One change from the Palace game: Weller on the bench and Ball in his place. Taylor also only made his return as far as the bench, so it looked like the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation, with Ian Moore as the lone striker supported by Little and Alan Moore. Ball was presumably included for the extra presence against Gregan, although Weller did have a bad knock against Palace.
Even though the traffic had been heavy when we had passed the ground earlier, we were parked up and into the ground in plenty of time. Looking around the ground, despite the ridiculous concept of the Alan Kelly Stand (surely you should play a lot of games for the team and be very good?) and even worse giving it a squad number (interesting if they bring substitute number 12 on), it does look quite good. Well, three sides of it do, as the Paddock is still decrepit and looks like a reject from Gloomfield Road. There was a good crowd of over 20,000 making plenty of noise, and an excellent Clarets following, although looking at the TV pictures there were a number of spaces behind the goal.
The Clarets started nervously, and twice crosses from the Preston left found their way to Healy at the back post twelve yards out, and once he forced NTG into an excellent save. Preston had most of the play, but rarely forced Nik into action (wearing tracksuit trousers, although it wasn't particularly cold). At this stage Preston were playing well, pretty football but lacking a cutting edge in the last third, and the Clarets restricting them a few long range shots.
Brilliant, Young David Moyes' Preston (BYDMP) had employed three forwards, as Cresswell, Macken and Healy all started. With Rankine injured, Gregan, Cartwright and McKenna made up the midfield, with Alexander, Murdoch, Lucketti and Edwards at the back and Lucas in goal. Healy did play pretty much on the right and the formation was fairly rigid. The Clarets' attack is now so fluid it is sometimes hard to work out who is playing where, as both Moores, Little and Briscoe all appeared in the centre forward position at various points in the first half, and Little and Alan Moore regularly swapped sides.
The problem was that the Clarets were struggling to retain possession, and gave it away too cheaply, far too often. For once, one of the main culprits was Dean West, who in terms of distribution had a bit of a stinker. Defensively he did well, but as Branch was not finding a Claret regularly enough, the Clarets were failing to cause enough problems to the home defence, who did look a little unsettled by Ian Moore's pace. Then a free kick was curled in from the right by Briscoe, and as Murdoch and Lucas hesitated Arthur stuck out a foot and deflected it into the net. Not a classic goal, but what a celebration! He may even have got the record for the fifty metre dash after it went in.
Cresswell then pulled up whilst running for a through ball, and having seen a few Clarets pull up in similar fashion with hamstring problems, we knew he wasn't coming back. Not nice cheering a professional getting injured, but funny nevertheless. Basham came on as BYDM chose to stick with three forwards. No sooner had he arrived than Burnley were two-nil up.
Ian Moore chased a lost cause, which Lucas mis-kicked, but the ball fell to Cartwright in the middle of the Preston half. He tried to play it first time on the half volley but made a complete mess of it, and only succeeded in rolling the ball to Glen. He advanced to the edge of the box and curled the ball with the outside of his right foot past the despairing dive of Lucas into the bottom left-hand corner of the net. Sublime skill, and as soon as he hit it, Glen knew it was in. The ITV Sport commentator described it as being ' just like a Brazilian'. Couldn't agree more!
Hang on, just over twenty minutes gone, not playing particularly well, and we were two up against BYDMP. Surely this wasn't right? Obviously the referee agreed, and decided to get involved. A succession of free kicks went Preston's way, and then Lee Briscoe was booked for a next-to-nothing incident. It was more clumsy than anything else, as both players simply tumbled to the ground. Foul yes; booking definitely not!
From the resulting free kick NTG jumped with Branch, Lucketti and Murdoch, but he failed to either catch it or punch it properly, and as the ball dropped, Lucketti rolled it back to McKenna just outside the box. Full credit to the Preston player for a tremendous strike, which flew past four Burnley players into the top corner of the net, but it was a bad error from NTG, and he knew it.
Anything the referee could do, his assistant could do better, as he signalled for a handball by Nik when he retrieved the ball on the edge of his box as a Preston forward closed in. TV replays clearly showed that Nik was well inside the box. Fortunately, the referee didn't compound the decision by sending Nik off, as he was given a yellow card.
The Lancashire Evening Post bemoans Preston's bad luck in that decision, and claims they should have won the game comfortably. It's the first time I have ever heard it called bad luck when an incorrect decision is given in your favour! Justice was done when McKenna hit the free kick well over the bar.
The referee's next action proved more decisive, as he gave a harsh penalty against Branch for a tackle on Healy. At the time, I thought it was an excellent tackle, and was shocked when the ref pointed to the spot. Having seen it again, I can see why it was given, and Stan's view was that Branch didn't need to tackle him as he was heading away from goal. I am almost certain that if the same offence had occurred at the other end it would have been waved away. That, unfortunately, is the nature of Mr Pearson of Peterlee. Last time he refereed a Burnley game was at Bradford, when he issued five yellow cards to the Clarets and none to Bradford, despite McCall running 20 yards to hack down Little. Here, he was much the same; Briscoe, NTG, and even Taylor's booking at the end, were harsh. Gregan's forearm smash on Alan Moore went unpunished; Alexander caught Little late, but was not punished; Healy made a very late and high challenge on NTG, which also did not receive a card. Ian Moore was tripped twice and told to get up, whilst Alan Moore was sandwiched on the half way line, and both Preston players obviously got the ball as there was no foul given! Murdoch and Grant could both have been sent off for rash challenges after they had already been booked, but for once the referee showed some sense.
If the assessors look at Mr Pearson's record they will see that this season he has booked over 60 players in 19 games, and more than two thirds of them have been for the away team. To book ten of our players in only two games is an outrage, as I hardly recall a vicious tackle in either game.
Maybe if Stan ranted a bit more like KK he might stop us getting so many cards? He seems very philosophical about the fact that we will get suspensions, but how many bookings are actually justified? The Clarets being top of the League is an even better achievement when you consider the fact that we are there despite the best efforts of a growing number of referees.
Within a couple of minutes of the equaliser Burnley should have been ahead again, as a fantastic chip from forty yards by Alan Moore looked to have cleared Lucas, but he somehow managed to tip it onto the bar. Ian Moore was quickest to react, and as the ball bounced down off the bar he only had to nod the ball into the almost empty net, with Lucas struggling to regain his feet. Instead, he somehow contrived to head it straight at Lucas, who saved it with his legs, and the ball was scrambled clear.
Two-two at the end of a breathless first half, that made up in entertainment and incident what it lacked in terms of fluent football.
For all their possession and territorial dominance, Preston's huffing and puffing was generally being held at arms length, and the Clarets did look very dangerous against a shaky Preston defence whenever they broke forward. Alan and Ian Moore caused problems at every opportunity, and Tony Grant again looked very effective in the midfield. At two-nil up we were cruising, but we would have settled for a draw before the start, I told myself at half time.
Preston flew out of the stalls at the start of the second half, and only a great save from NTG, low down to his left, denied Healy a goal. After that, Cox and Gnohere reasserted their authority and snuffed out any Preston danger. Taylor came on for Branch as Briscoe reverted to left back and Burnley switched to 4-4-2 to match Preston, and within three minutes they were ahead again through a sublime piece of skill and some rugged determination.
Arthur collected the ball on the left from a throw-in halfway inside the Preston half. After breezing past the first Preston challenge, he played the ball into Alan Moore's feet as he stood unmarked on the edge of the box. Instead of trapping the ball and looking to shoot, Moore let the ball roll through his legs and played it with the inside of his left foot back into Arthur's path as he continued his powerful surge into the box. The flick completely wrong-footed Gregan, but Alexander was still favourite to get to the ball first. Arthur shrugged him aside like Jonah Lomu in full flight and calmly placed the ball past a helpless Lucas. Cue the mad celebration again - and an immediate look at the watch. Still half an hour to go!
Time and again Preston pushed forward, and time and again the Burnley defence sent them back. A curling shot from Healy was well saved by NTG; a snapshot from Basham on the volley was blazed over when he should have done better; a Healy shot was smothered by NTG; and in the last couple of minutes when Basham was played in, he overran his first touch and couldn't get his shot on target as Briscoe and Nik closed him down.
Meanwhile, Burnley were creating chances of their own. Moore blazed over after a good run across the edge of the box; Taylor caught Lucas in possession, but the angle was too tight and the ball was smuggled behind for a corner; and then a break down the right led to a cross which somehow evaded Grant and Johnrose. Lenny had come on for Alan Moore with five minutes to go, shortly after Weller had replaced Little. Weller and Ian Moore both wasted time by running into the corner and winning throw-ins and corners.
The referee somehow found four minutes of injury time, but it looked all over when Taylor got the better of Lucketti as he waited for Lucas to come out. He then carefully lobbed the ball over Lucas into the net. Unfortunately, our friend the assistant had seen an infringement, and the goal was disallowed. Not only that, but Taylor was then booked for protesting. On first view I thought it did look like a foul, but having seen it since, Taylor was very unlucky, as Lucketti made a mess of it and actually ended up trying to pull Taylor back.
Just before the final whistle, the tannoy announced Healy as the sponsor's Man of the Match, which was greeted with derision by the travelling Clarets, and the chanting of Arthur's name. If he wasn't a cult figure before, he definitely will be now. ITV Sport got it right, and even Jim 'I don't like Burnley' Beglin had to give it to Arthur. The Clarets were in good voice throughout and the Preston fans failed to live up to BYDM's call in the Post the night before 'to sing up and drown out the Burnley fans'. In fact, we even managed a call of 'Shall we sing a song for you?' along with 'Dingles, Dingles, top of the league' and many, many others.
Strange game, as it was not the best of performances by the Clarets. Having coasted to two-nil without really getting going, we shot ourselves in the foot by letting Preston back into it, but overall we defended well and Preston failed to take the half chances they got. Preston however, are not the side of last year. They have the players and the ability, but seem to lack the belief in themselves. Perhaps the pre-season and early season unrest is still simmering, as they finished the game with two players on the pitch who are transfer listed, Macken and Anderson. Can't imagine Stan playing players who want to leave, can you?
In the court of King Arthur