Slip slidin' away
Burnley 0 West Brom 2
Report by Patrick O'Neill
The day hadn’t started well. After consuming an inordinately large volume of alcohol on Saturday, the six o’clock alarm was most unwelcome, and it was fully twenty minutes before I managed to crawl out of bed. This is Sunday, the hangover recovery day. What’s going on? Oh, I remember, ITV Digital and the ‘ever-popular’ 6.15 kick-off.
Obviously, with it being Sunday, travelling would be a nightmare. And so it proved. There were engineering works on the line into London, necessitating a leg of the journey by bus. Not the best mode of transport if you’re feeling a little green around the gills.
Eventually, I arrived in London and made my way to Kings Cross, from where I and a couple of other hardy souls would make our way to Leeds and then to Burnley. Well, that was the idea. The fact that the train was cancelled meant we had to catch an Edinburgh train and change at Doncaster for yet another leg by bus, this time to Leeds. Fortunately, we were only fifteen minutes late at this point, and so easily made the connection to Burnley, where we arrived more or less on time. Something I doubt could be said if we’d been travelling with Virgin. The Ministry of Ale provided a most welcome sight and the beer, as always, was good.
Now, to all things Claret. After our recent performances against Sheff Wed and Cheltenham, our chances against an in-form West Brom looked slim at best, but it was still a game we could win, and indeed, had to win, if we were to aspire to a top two finish. We needed a lift, and hopefully this would come in the shape of a Robbie Blake debut and the return of on-loan Marlon Beresford, who could be here for a while, as NTG looks set for at least a month out after tearing his calf muscle last week. The goalkeeping coach at Middlesbrough (where Beresford has only made a handful of appearances in the four years he has been there) would hopefully have improved his kicking and his technique at crosses.
The first thing I noticed after taking up my seat at the Turf was the state of the pitch. Now, I thought we’d invested in state-of-the-art covers (remember the undersoil heating?), but the pitch looked decidedly muddy, so what’s the point? Do we still have the covers?
The announcer read out the teams and they lined up as follows:
Burnley:
Beresford
West Cox Gnohere Briscoe
Ball Grant Cook A Moore
I Moore Taylor
Subs: Armstrong, Blake, Johnrose, Little, Weller.
West Brom:
Hoult
Balis Gilchrist D Moore Sigurdsson Clement
McInnes Johnson Chambers
Roberts Dichio
Subs: Dobie, Fox, Jensen, Jordao, Lyttle
It was disappointing to see Blake only make the bench, but there had been rumours that he hadn’t recovered from injury and wouldn’t play for a further two or three weeks. However, it was no surprise to see Little there, as he was clearly unfit against Cheltenham and, as a result, West had been exposed on too many occasions. Another unsurprising decision by Ternent was to leave out Cennamo, whose debut last week was of nightmarish proportions. Armstrong, therefore, is assumed to be the substitute keeper now that Jeppo has retired.
One thing that stands out about this current West Brom team is their defence. They have conceded fewer goals than any other team in this division, enabling them to win a lot of matches 1-0. Conversely, they haven’t scored many either, but if we were to win then we couldn’t concede the first goal.
The only other worry I had before the kick-off was the referee. Jeff Winter, a so-called Premiership referee, has a reputation as a bit of a card-waver and, as with many Premiership referees, a bit of a prima donna attitude towards the Nationwide League.
As the teams came out, Beresford got a terrific reception as he took up his place in front of the Jimmy McIlroy stand, and it was good to see him back in a Burnley shirt. With his contract up in the summer, maybe he’ll be back here for longer than a month.
Burnley kicked off and within the first minute had almost taken the lead. A ball to the edge of the area saw Darren Moore climbing all over Taylor, and from the resultant free kick, Cook struck the ball low and hard round the wall. Hoult could only keep it out with his legs. Ball was unlucky in his follow-up, as the ball squirmed away from him and was hacked clear.
It became apparent early on that Winter wanted to be noticed. He kept giving petty free kicks and the game couldn’t really flow. All too often when there was an advantage to be played, the whistle blew and play would be brought back. However, he did let Arthur off a booking after he’d stupidly kicked the ball away when a decision went against him.
Alan Moore was playing almost as a third striker, linking midfield to the attack, but was finding space difficult to come by as West Brom’s defence was packed tight. Ian Moore wasn’t getting a look in as Darren Moore played him very well and Taylor, as usual, was getting fouled time and time again with few decisions going his way.
On 18 minutes, Tony Grant provided the first, and probably only, funny moment of the game. Running towards goal and about twenty-five yards out, he attempted a shot, only to completely miskick. To his embarrassment, the ball went out for a throw-in about twenty yards from the corner flag.
The first half-hour of the game provided very little in the way of clear-cut chances. Roberts was, however, proving to be a real handful for Cox and Arthur, with his pace and power difficult to handle. Grant all too frequently gave the ball away in dangerous positions, and from a poor pass by him, Roberts had nearly been through on goal, but overplayed it and lost possession. As well as his undoubted ability, Roberts has developed another more unsavoury part of his game. He’s more than happy to mix it with defenders using his arms and elbows, but is constantly complaining about his ‘rough treatment’. He’s also more than willing to dive when he feels he can get away with it.
Of the few crosses he’d had to deal with, Beresford looked confident and assured, but some of his kicking was still a little wayward. West’s recent good form continued, and he allowed Clement no time or space to get crosses in, but there was little else to cheer about. Burnley were struggling to create anything, and West Brom were happy to defend and hit on the counter.
From one of these counter-attacks, West Brom took the lead. A clear foul on Alan Moore 30 yards from the West Brom goal was waved away by Winter, and the ball threaded through by McInnes into the path of Roberts. He all too easily left the Burnley defenders trailing in his wake, rounded Beresford and slammed the ball into the net.
Four minutes later and Roberts made it 2-0. Grant was again caught in possession and the ball was slid through to Roberts, this time from Johnson. Roberts then easily outmuscled Cox and shot past the advancing Beresford, who managed to get a touch on the ball but couldn’t keep it out. To the disgust of the Burnley fans, Roberts ran over to the Jimmy McIlroy stand and proceeded to celebrate in front of them. Where was Winter? Running back to the halfway line with his back to Roberts. Nice one, Jeff.
For the few minutes until half-time, Burnley upped the tempo. Hoult was forced into making two saves in quick succession. Firstly, from Ian Moore’s shot after good work by Taylor, and then from an in-swinging Cook corner. Other than that, Burnley had rarely threatened.
Half-time: Burnley 0 West Brom 2
Little replaced the disappointing Cook at the beginning of the second half. We hoped he would add a little creativity.
The first action of note in the second half came from a Burnley free kick taken by Grant, which saw Taylor win a header, again forcing Hoult into tipping the ball over. However, the game should have well and truly been killed off a minute later. Alan Moore was caught in possession in his own half, and from the resultant cross Dichio was unmarked on the far post, but somehow managed to blaze over. A massive let-off, but it was difficult to see it making any difference.
On 56 minutes, Weller came on for Alan Moore, but this did little to change the game. Burnley were still being comfortably held by West Brom’s defence. Weller and Little were clearly rusty and their passing wayward.
Eventually, Robbie Blake made his debut coming on for Ian Moore, who’d never had a look-in against a very solid back three, especially the impressive (although dirty) Darren Moore.
Burnley were still finding it difficult to make an impression, and only some last-ditch defending by Briscoe prevented West Brom scoring again. With twenty minutes to go the game opened up, with Roberts in particular finding even more space. Winter seemed only too keen for him to score a hat-trick, as time and time again he was allowed to get away with tugging and pushing.
At last, with 15 minutes left, Burnley fashioned a decent chance. A quickly-taken free kick by Weller found Little unmarked in the box, and his low cross behind the West Brom defence was just too good for everyone, the ball going out for a goal kick.
More often than not, Burnley’s attacks broke down without posing any real danger, and from one such attack the ball was cleared to half way. Roberts was first to it and looked odds-on to race clear, but West grabbed him round the shoulders and held on. As Winter blew for the free kick, Roberts’ elbow caught West flush on the top of the head. So what would Winter do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The guy just bottled it. He spoke to neither West nor Roberts when yellow and red cards respectively were the obvious decisions.
From his body language, it was obvious Roberts was about to blow his top, and we didn’t have to wait long. He had the ball close to the right touchline when a typically robust Ball challenge robbed him of possession but also caught him in the face. No free kick was given, but was it deliberate? Probably. Did Ball deserve a booking? Certainly. Was it worth it? Absolutely.
After treatment, Roberts went looking for Ball, and Megson decided to sub him before he got sent off. Still, he wouldn’t go off without remonstrating, and finally got the yellow card he’d deserved for at least the last hour. A chorus of deserved boos accompanied him down the tunnel.
Before the final whistle, Burnley created their best chance of the game. Little beat two players on the right of the penalty area and fed Blake, whose control and pass showed great vision as he picked out Grant, unmarked and only eight yards from goal. Like many other Clarets, I was already out of my seat, believing it not possible to miss. I was wrong. Grant shot straight at Hoult and the chance went begging. There were four minutes of stoppage time, but to be honest we wouldn’t have scored if there’d been four hundred.
West Brom deserved their win, if only for their impressive defensive performance. With Roberts always likely to score at the other end, there’ll be plenty more 1-0 wins for the Baggies this season. On the plus side, Little and Weller, although clearly rusty, improved things, and Blake gave us a cameo of what he is capable of. However, we now have a run of three away games in a row, which will use up our games in hand. A total of at least seven points must be our target if we are to secure at least a play-off place and get our season back on track.
Team:
Beresford, West, Briscoe, Cox, Gnohere, Cook (Little 46), Ball, Grant, A Moore (Weller 56), I Moore (Blake 67), Taylor. Subs not used: Armstrong and Johnrose.
Scorer: Roberts (36, 41).
Crowd: 15,846.
Referee: Jeff W*n*er of Stockton-on-Tees.
Paddy’s Man of the Match: Kevin Ball.
The away match and this
game last season
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