I woke up on Saturday feeling like death and hardly able to
speak. Some bug or other had remained dormant all week, waiting for the perfect time to
strike – the weekend. Typical. Having already missed one game this season, however, I
wasn't about to miss another, so summoned up what little energy I still had and dragged
myself out of the house.
As so often in life, when one thing goes wrong several more are bound to follow suit.
The train into London was late. Predictably, the train from Euston to Birmingham also left
late (things are getting better on our "National Rail Network", you know). Once
in Birmingham, though, things perked up a little when we reached our "lunch
pub", famed for its large – by which I mean absolutely huge – portions. If
I had been able to actually taste my meal (my taste buds having gone the same way as my
voice) I'm sure I would have enjoyed it all the more!
On Friday, I'd started reading match previews from various sources in an effort to mug
up on the opposition. Trying to reconcile all the information was impossible –
depending on where I looked, West Brom definitely had no injury problems; West Brom
definitely had huge injury problems; new signing Darren Moore would definitely start; new
signing Darren Moore definitely wouldn't start; they would definitely play four at the
back; they always played with a back three... I had to stop reading just to avoid going
insane.
Unusually, and perhaps as a result of my cold, I found it difficult to get terribly
excited about the game. I did manage to find the energy (and voice) to debate with Firmo
Junior the merits of Paul Cook – my favourite player, emphatically not Lee's! –
but the prospect of any other discussion seemed like too much effort. In my weakened state
I was grateful for the excellent tram service, which deposited me at the ground with
minimal effort on my part.
Although pre-match facts about West Brom had been hard to establish, unfortunately it
was certain that Glen Little and Alan Moore would miss the game. Rumour had it that Coxy
would be back, though, so I felt fairly confident that we could come away with a point
– if we could stop West Brom scoring. I'd heard that they would have Roberts and
loanee Dichio missing through injury, and with only the evergreen Bob Taylor (plus some
nonentity called Dobie whom they'd signed from Carlisle) up front we might indeed stand a
chance of doing just that. Either way, with West Brom's defensive record, our away record,
and with both teams at the right end of the table, I felt sure it would be a close-run
thing. (But hey, I also predicted Burnley 3 Crewe 0!)
The atmosphere inside the ground was good and I made my way to my seat. At which point
I realised that fate had conspired against me again. My seat was almost at the top of the
stand, which meant only one thing: I would be unable to read the West Brom players' shirt
numbers. I can't understand why teams playing in vertical stripes can't have the numbers
displayed more prominently. Sheffield Wednesday are another example. It's OK if it's your
team – subconsciously, you come to automatically know each player's position, style,
gait, etc – but it's not too great if you're a poor match reporter trying to
distinguish between several players all wearing number 11!
The teams came out and lined up as follows:
Burnley (3-5-2): Michopoulos, West, Davis, Cox, Gnohere,
Briscoe, Weller, Ball, Cook, Gareth Taylor, Ian Moore. Subs: Ellis, Payton, Mullin,
Cennamo, Thomas.
West Brom (3-5-2): Hoult, Sigurdsson, Lyttle, Clement, Darren Moore, Gilchrist,
Johnson, Appleton, McInnes, Bob Taylor, Dobie. Subs: Quinn, Fox, Cummings, Jensen, Adam
Chambers.
Immediately I was relieved to see Coxy. I was also pleased to be able to recognise a
few of the opposition players without the aid of binoculars!
West Brom kicked off, towards where we were sitting, and were almost immediately
awarded a gratuitous free kick. I hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come. Nothing came
of it, though, and I was pleased to see that NTG seemed to be kicking freely. We were soon
under pressure again, with a shot going just wide of Nik's right-hand post. Shortly
afterwards, Nik had to be alert when Coxy put him under pressure with a West Brom player
bearing down on him, just managing to kick the ball out for a throw-in. We were already
defending quite deep (Cook almost playing as an extra defender), so the signs were that we
would try to dig in for a point – sensible.
With all this frantic early action I started to believe that the game might be quite
entertaining. Arthur was looking composed and showing some skilful touches, and I hoped he
might be able to get forward as the game progressed.
Unfortunately, that was about as exciting as the first half got. My notes indicate very
little worth reporting on – rather too many West Brom free kicks and corners; a few
chances for us to get forward and even a corner, but invariably they came to nothing. We
were sorely missing Little and Moore (Alan) – Moore (Darren) was doing a good marking
job on Taylor, and Weller was somewhat disappointing, tending to give the ball away and
lacking his usual tenacity. Defensively, we didn't look too bad, with Davis, Cox and
Arthur in particular all playing well (the odd nervy moment, but nothing too desperate).
Nik was in reasonable command of his area, and seemed to be moving easily – not least
with one top-class fingertip save. Even a Grobbelaar-esque moment of madness didn't prove
disastrous!
The half drew to a close with a booking for Taylor (G) and a show of incompetence by
the referee, who seemingly required Hoult's input on the rules of the game. As the whistle
went, despite the rumblings of discontent around me (why, why, why are so many Burnley
fans so excessively negative?) I felt we had played reasonably well and had hopefully
created a platform for the second half.
I would love to be able to report that the second half was a feast of attacking,
flowing football, with us triumphing in the final minute. But as we know, life isn't like
that. Once again, we lacked creativity – Taylor got through once, only to be flagged
offside. Stan took off Moore and brought on Mullin. West Brom were the better side, and
eventually went ahead in the 68th minute. Having defended quite well for most of the game,
it was a disappointing way to concede a goal. Ball gave away a free kick, earning himself
a booking in the process. Although the free kick was some way out, our marking was
non-existent and Dobie was able to easily position himself to head home.
Stan then brought on Payton for Cox, but initially it was West Brom who seemed to be
going for it, almost immediately earning a couple of corners which fortunately came to
nothing. We then started to turn up the heat, Mullin and Payton combining well to earn a
corner and the referee spoiling another penalty area foray by awarding another contentious
free kick to West Brom. It was desperate stuff, though, and I never seriously thought we
would score.
Even the introduction of Bradford hero Tony Ellis wasn't enough, and although we didn't
give up the fight (Dean West in particular pushing forward effectively) it was never to
be, despite the ref adding on a quite outrageous five minutes of stoppage time. (Why is
there always so much stoppage time nowadays?)
Reflecting on the game later I thought that West Brom hadn't overly impressed me,
although they looked a tight side who will probably (to quote our master) be there or
thereabouts at the end of the season. I thought that Bob Taylor had had a reasonable game,
and that Johnson had looked lively. Their number 17 had also looked good (I later found
out that it was Sigurdsson, who probably looked familiar from his Stoke days).
And Burnley? Well, second best on the day, and, with Wolves overtaking us, now second
best in the table. But we can hardly complain, can we? With a couple of new signings
(preferably a creative central midfielder and another centre half), and a bit of luck,
we'll be more than OK.
Team:
Michopoulos, West,
Davis, Cox (Payton, 70), Gnohere, Briscoe, Weller, Ball (Ellis, 79), Cook, Gareth Taylor,
Ian Moore (Mullin, 65). Subs not used: Cennamo and Thomas.
Scorer:
Dobie (68).
Attendance:
21,442.
Referee:
Mr Butler (Sutton-in-Ashfield).
Pauline's Man of the Match:
Arthur Gnohere.
More from this game,
the home match and
this game last season
Second
Best