My pain and sadness is more sad and painful than yours
Burnley 1 Cardiff 1
Report by Firmo
Pretty crap day, really. A game in which two points were definitely lost was made worse by the premature kick-off time and the interminable journey we had to undertake to make it. There are times when you have to remind yourself, fetching up in Burnley a mere 35 minutes before kick-off having left your home over five and a half hours before and still not having had a pint, that this is what we call 'having a good time'.
I suppose these one o'clock kick-offs are going to become par for the course whenever we play either a club which promises to bring a big support or one with a particular reputation. I guess the dreadful events that preceded last season's Nottingham Forest game are the origin of this, and given that it seems churlish to complain, but for so many of the out-of-towners who make their way to Burnley on Saturdays early kick-offs are just one more pain in the arse. For some of us it means setting off earlier, less time in the town and a less appealing day in the town itself. The lifeblood of this supporters' club, in my view, is the organised travel to Turf Moor, and we so want to encourage people in the south to go to home games and spend their money in Burnley, but with one thing and another - another being the impossibility of getting anywhere in England in a hurry - it only seems to get harder. For others, the early kick-off obviously made the difference between going to the game and giving it a miss. This was another low-attendance match.
The game wasn't a particularly enjoyable one, either. Of course it's possible that we always play like this, but you only realise it when you've had a mere 20 minutes of pub time before the match. We started quite brightly, with Little in particular looking to create, but quite early on Stan seemed to give the order to compress play, as the game became squeezed into a narrow strip in the middle of the pitch. This had the effect of containing Cardiff, but also diminished the influence of our key creative players, Little and Blake. It made for a fairly dour spectacle in which, while Burnley were on top, there were few chances.
When the breakthrough came, the scorer was fitting. I remain wary of praising Chaplow. I'm just worried that it's too perfect a story, and that with such a young player who is obviously so good, something is bound to go wrong. But I find I keep voting him man of the match. Indeed, in my last three, very different, games - at Ipswich, West Ham and here - Chappers as man of the match was the common thread. And it's interesting to note that young Richard gained a clean sweep of the London Clarets voters on the train home - and I can't remember when that ever happened. So Chaplow is good, and was good again here. He ran and ran and ran, made himself ubiquitous, and always looked a decent shout to score with his forays forward. There was one marvellous moment during the second half when he and Robbie Blake ran full pelt forward into the penalty box to try and get on the end of something - and if that's worthy of comment it shows how we've come not to expect such enterprise - and a tremendous piece of skill later on when one minute he was facing towards our goal and in a split second had turned and was running in the other direction, leaving Cardiff's midfield flat-footed. What I like about Chaplow is that he doesn't stop challenging for the ball and when he gets it he generally passes it to our players; and when he doesn't win the challenge or misplaces the pass, he keeps on running and tries again.
There are other, more senior players who could learn from this attitude, and I often found myself thinking how outstanding Chaplow might be with a really good senior partner next to him in midfield instead of Grant, who after some decent early games is showing signs of reverting to type. He made many misplaced passes and play often seemed to be something that went on around him.
Another negative, while we're dealing in them, was that Jensen's hopeless inability to deal with high balls was in evidence again. In the first half, Cardiff's best chance came when he failed to punch a routine long ball, allowing a header at goal which could have gone anywhere - but by luck didn't go in. As the bloke next to me put it, apart from being about six and a half foot tall and being able to use his hands, Jensen didn't have much of an advantage there.
So we always knew that we really needed a second goal to finish the game off, but it never looked particularly likely. We had more of the ball - although both sides gave it away lots - but as ever didn't turn possession into chances. It was yet another quiet afternoon for the opposition goalkeeper. The biggest problem keepers playing against Burnley at the moment must face is staying awake over the 90-odd minutes. Our best chance of sealing it came from Ian Moore, who will never be the man you'd put your shirt on. There's someone who's plainly not enjoying his football at the moment. He shot when a pass to the unmarked Facey was probably the better option, although having said that it's the strikers' job to shoot and ours don't do it enough - and who's to say Facey would have finished it anyway?
One-nil was never going to be enough, because we will always concede a goal. We concede goals because we make bad defensive mistakes. So it came to pass once more. The source was a familiar enough one as Graham Branch made another dreadful error. There are times when I feel sorry for Branch. Clearly he isn't a central defender. He lacks the instincts and skills of a defender, and he shouldn't be playing there. Only one man decides he will play there, and the buck stops with the manager. But to be honest I'm getting to the point of feeling sorry for myself for having to watch a very poor defensive unit giving away soft goals every week. The Branch error is almost becoming a cliché. We know it's going to come. We merely have to wait for it. The only question is whether Jensen will drop a clanger first. Here, Branch needlessly attempted to dribble the ball just in front of the penalty area, lost control, and it was passed to the otherwise quiet Earnshaw, who promptly lashed it into the net. It was a quality finish, but Cardiff simply shouldn't have been presented with the ball in a dangerous position. It had been a shocking piece of defending. Our skipper sank to the floor with his head in his hands. Who was going to motivate the team?
That was it, as after then we only went backwards. Heads dropped, and it became a matter of hanging onto the one remaining point. It was interesting to see Arthur organising the defence, trying to gee people up and telling Branch where to stand. Fortunately Cardiff are not a good team and the game rather petered to its unsatisfactory conclusion.
Ultimately, playing a player out of position cost us two points that should have been ours. I'm well aware of the financial straitjacket within which the Club currently has to operate. I'm not one of those head in the cloud supporters who is sulking about the hard fact that this season is about getting fifty points while spending as little money as possible. This is, and has been from day one, a fight against relegation, and it's as well that we admit that. But if, as we've read, Stan has been given the option of bringing in one or two further loan signings, why have we not brought in a central defender? How can Stan be saving things up for a rainy day when right now in defence it's pouring? We leak soft goals. Stan described Cardiff's goal afterwards as being a 'smash and grab' business, but it's hardly smash and grab if you leave the door wide open. If you can't field two central defenders in a first team match, how does this not constitute an emergency? Why hasn't that hole been plugged? It's also worth noting that Arthur did well at the back and for the most part held things together. This is the same Arthur who, when we went to Ipswich with no central defenders in the team and coincidentally conceded six goals, was being allowed to play for QPR. Sometimes, it's hard to see what the plan is.
The bottom line is that the last two home games should have been won but weren't. We really needed some wins rather than draws if we're not to be sucked towards the bottom. Some crucial-looking games against Derby and Rotherham loom.
Burnley: Jensen, Camara, West, Gnohere, Grant, Chaplow, Little (Farrelly, 83), Blake (Chadwick, 78), Branch, Ian Moore, Facey.
Subs not used: Roche, O'Neill, Pilkington.
Scorers: (Burnley) Chaplow 52 / (Cardiff) Earnshaw 76.
Referee: H Webb (Rotherham).
Attendance: 10,886.
Firmo's Man of the Match: Chaplow, again.
As with all articles on the site, the views expressed in the match reports section are those of the individual contributor, and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Burnley FC London Supporters' Club.
