Any lingering hopes (and there can't have been many) of reaching the play-offs were finally extinguished at Turf Moor on Tuesday night. The fact that we played well for most of the game, and really should have got at least a point, went some way to making up for the vast disappointment of the 3 games played the previous week. Those games are now history, and as depressing as they were at least let's try and finish in the top 10.
Stan made 6 changes from the shambolic team that turned up at Walsall, some forced, some tactical, and they responded like a team that had had a right bollocking. Quite why they couldn't do it after the Sheff Utd bollocking we'll never know, but if our finishing had been anything like it should have been, then we'd have had the game won before the two late Leicester goals. Frank Sinclair's o.g. deep into injury time was scant consolation for a good performance.
A mid-table finish looks on the cards - anything above will be a bonus now - and that's about right, isn't it? When you concede on average nearly 2 goals per game, can you expect to finish in the play-offs? Let's face it: with only Grimsby conceding more goals than us, shouldn't we be lower down the table? Despite what you might read elsewhere, Stan has done a fantastic job. Whatever you may feel about certain team selections, and tactics, no other manager would have taken us to where we are now from the position we were in when Stan took over. I don't want to swap places with Stoke, Coventry, Derby or Sheffield Wednesday, so mid-table mediocrity is OK for now. We would have taken this after the first five games, and with 2 good Cup runs thrown in I'm happy enough.
Leicester looked anything but Premiership candidates. True, they were very organised, and got plenty of men behind the ball. I am surprised how well they have done this season, but the team they have will struggle at best in the Premiership. The fact that Pompey and Leicester are the two best teams in this division by far says to me how average this division is this season. I also think that both teams have good managers, but good managers need money in the top flight, and unless they get some I see both having a torrid time.
From the kick-off, Burnley took the game to the Foxes, playing some neat controlled football with Little and Blake instrumental in most things. Ian Moore was playing up front, with Blake also featuring in most things good. With Gareth Taylor suspended, the long-ball option featured by some players when under pressure was abandoned in favour of passes along the ground. It worked, but on too many occasions the final shot failed to test Walker in the City goal - Robbie Blake being most guilty. If Alan Moore had been as wasteful...well, you can imagine the imaginative comments from the crowd.
We lost to two left-wing corners in the final 15 minutes. Both were taken by the influential Izzet; the first was scrambled home by Dickov, the second powered home by Benjamin. Beresford could probably have done better, but at the moment he is low on confidence, punching unconvincingly on occasions, and staying rooted to the spot on others. Time for a recall for Nico. We did keep battling until the end, and got a consolation after Little had been put clear from a free kick, his hard low cross being inadvertently put into his own net by the hapless Sinclair.
Ultimately we lost the game because we gave away two soft goals, and failed to take numerous chances of our own. That's why Leicester are going up, and we aren't.
West Steve Davis Diallo Gnohere
Little Weller Cook Briscoe
Attendance: 14,554.
Scorers: (Burnley) Sinclair 90 (o.g.) / (Leicester) Dickov 79, Benjamin 83.
Referee: Alan Kaye (Wakefield).
Becko's Man of the Match: Ian Moore.
We Had Our Chances