We only need another 47 points
Gillingham
0 Burnley 3
Through the eyes of a Maltese Claret:
Report by Joe Vella
When
Patrick asked me on the way up to the Wigan match
to do the Gillingham match report, I could hardly
say no. After all, Patrick had been instrumental
in helping me plan my visits to Turf Moor and to
Kent to watch two Burnley matches, and my presence
on the train, as part of the London Clarets contingent,
was due to him in no small way.
For
a Clarets supporter of some 40 years' standing,
surprisingly enough I had only attended seven live
Burnley games. But being born and bred in Malta,
my opportunities have been restricted to my very
infrequent visits to England, and there were many
times when I could not fit in a Clarets match during
a visit.
My
Claret and Blue passion dates back to the 1962
FA Cup Final against Spurs. Italian
state TV, which we receive clearly down in Malta,
used to transmit this annual showpiece of the
English game live. Since my father supported the
London
side, it was Hobson’s choice for me. Eventually,
the more I got to know about the Club – how
it defied all odds to gain success on limited
resources and in competition with other clubs
with superior
financial resources – the more my love
and admiration for Burnley grew.
I
have never regretted my choice, not even during
the bad old days in the basement divisions, and
it has never, ever crossed my mind to support any
other team. During those bad old days, it was so
difficult to get news locally about Burnley that
I subscribed for a couple of years to the Burnley
Express. I gave that up when the postal charges
exceeded the cost of the paper! Nowadays of course
thanks to the Internet I can get up to date news,
and am a very regular visitor to the London Clarets
and the Burnley Mad websites.
My
only earlier opportunity to visit Turf Moor was
in December 1987, when Burnley played out a 0-0
draw with Hereford (who had won 6-0 at the Turf
the previous season!). In fact this was the last
game that I had seen, as my subsequent visits to
England were either in the close season or I could
not fit a game in. Anyway, here I was about to
be initiated into the Pie & Peas ritual, and
looking forward to visiting the new-look Turf
Moor with
the new Jimmy Mac and James Hargreaves Longside
stands. Little did I know….but luckily enough
the responsibility for THAT match report lies elsewhere!
Well,
the result of the Wigan match was a terrible disappointment – and
I had the urge to abdicate my responsibilities
for the Gills match. In fact I had the urge to
give the match a miss altogether, but Stan had
asked us to keep the faith – and with Burnley
you never know. So back I was on Monday at Victoria
Station, meeting up again with the other London
Clarets. Included was most of the group
that had made Turf Moor on the Saturday, plus a
handful of – for me, at least – new
acquaintances.
So
I was inducted in the away match ritual. Woody
set off at a good pace, and we all hared after
him to the first pub, which had apparently
organised a beer festival in its garden over the
Bank Holiday
weekend. All the brews had the names of body parts
and, judging from mine, tasted like them too. Perhaps
we were just unlucky that the better bitters had
already been all supped, as the notices on the
various barrels declared. Or perhaps vets can’t
brew beer and should stick to their profession.
Firmo made an interesting observation about the
residents’ front gardens in this part of
the world, and on the way to the next pub we were
vying to spot the most interesting piece of non-garden
furniture. Lady Hamilton was off at the next pub,
and since we did not turn the blind eye as Nelson
would have done, mine host had to pour pints of
it down the drain.
Our
contingent was rapidly growing, and quite a sizable
group made it to the last watering hole, the Will
Adams, where again we swelled the numbers of patrons
in Claret and Blue. The landlord and his henchmen
stood behind the counter in their Gillingham tops,
and eventually a number of similarly attired Gillingham
fans joined the fun. It was good to note the friendly
spirit and the good natured banter between both
sets of supporters. Behind the bar I noticed the
portrait of a bearded gentleman, presumably the
original Will Adams, and he was wearing the Burnley
colours! Can’t remember a Will Adams ever
playing for us – perhaps this is one for
Ray Simpson!
Judging
by the discussions going on, the omens for the
game were not good. For a start, Burnley have always
found Gillingham mean hosts and rarely come away
with a point, let alone three! In fact nobody could
remember the last Burnley win at the Priestfield!
Secondly, Gills had not conceded a goal in their
first three league matches, as opposed to our nine.
In addition, there were the ex-player and the player-returning-from-injury
syndromes to consider! Ian Cox was bound to have
a good game against us, while Marlon King, back
from injury for the home side, would surely do
an Ellington and heap more misery on the travelling
band.
It
looked even more ominous when we took our places
in the temporary away stand – the advertising
hoarding at the opposite end of the pitch, the
end Burnley had to defend for the first half, proclaimed:
John Weir – Funeral Directors.
Had we just attended our team’s wake? Ian
Cox got a very warm welcome from the away end – eat
your heart out, Tony Livesey – while the
p.a. announcer read through the Burnley team in
such a hurry that
we only had time to give a loud cheer at the end
of the announcement.
The
Clarets lined up with the same 11 that started
the Wigan
game (another omen?)...
Jen |
sen |
West |
May |
Branch |
Camara |
Little |
Weller |
Grant |
Chadwick |
Bla |
ke |
Ian
M |
oore |
...but
with a slightly different game plan: Robbie
Blake playing deeper to form a five-man midfield,
leaving IMMM as the lone striker. However the formation
was very fluid, and in the first half we tended
to attack en bloc. This left us a bit exposed at
the back to their counters which, thankfully, were
few and far between and on the whole rather tame.
At
the Wigan game, Burnley put countless crosses
into the area, which came to nothing because
Taylor was not there. It seemed that this was going
to
be more of the same, and the first attack saw Paul
Weller trying desperately to reach a high cross.
He could not climb high enough to direct his header
at goal, though, and the effort flew over the bar.
Minutes
later Glen Little found himself unmarked on the
edge of the six-yard box with only the keeper
to beat, but he screwed his shot wide of the
far post. Burnley were playing the ball around
well
on the deck, and were constantly probing the
Gillingham defence. Again they had the penchant
to walk the
ball into the net while Gills tended to be more
direct in their approach play. Given the recent
defensive lapses, there was always a feeling
of “this
is it” when the Gills ventured into our
half. However, Graham Branch had on the whole
a very steady
game, and won his fair share of headers at the
back. David May was always solid, and his positional
play
testament to his experience at higher levels.
All
in all Burnley created the better chances, and
after Ian Moore was tripped in the penalty area,
with nothing given, May had a bullet header cleared
off the line from a corner down Burnley’s
left. Gillingham countered with a couple of shots
that sailed harmlessly over, and they hit the side
netting after Jensen failed to collect cleanly
from a free kick. Incidentally, Weller gave away
this free kick, and was booked for his pains.
The
Clarets were slowly but surely getting on top,
and, after Ian Moore had gone close, a goal either
side
of the half hour mark put us in the driving seat.
The first goal came out of nothing and was down
to IMMM’s dogged persistence. He closed
down the opposing full back, who could only hit
the ball
against him. Ian was off in a flash, round the
defender and bearing down on goal from the left
wing position. The goalie came out to narrow
the angle, but IMMM guided it just inside the
near post
to the delight of the sizable Burnley following.
Within
five minutes, Glen Little had one of his mesmerising
runs before combining with Blake to set Luke Chadwick
away. Luke’s pull-back was met by Dean West,
who hit a stunning left-foot shot into the far
corner of the net. Stunning? I think that we were
more stunned than the Gillingham fans. Euphoria
over, the general view was whether we could get
a third to kill off the game, and whether a two
goal lead was enough.
The
rest of the half was evenly balanced, with Robbie
Blake shooting just
out and Luke Chadwick just failing to control
the ball when well-placed and screwing his shot
wide.
On their part, Gillingham tested Brian Jensen,
who had to dive to his left to get at a low dangerous
ball; and he had to rush out to the edge of
the area to collect at the feet of an attacker
to
avert
the danger. Branchy lost his man on a couple
of occasions, but his speed helped him recover
in time
to make telling tackles.
Half
time was spent in acts of lack of faith. We all
anticipated that Gillingham would come at us in
the second half, and our defensive frailties were
of grave concern. Gills’ intentions were
confirmed when crowd favourite (theirs not ours!)
Marlon King came on at the start instead of Nosworthy.
To their credit the Clarets defended well, and
hardly gave their opponents any space. Jensen dealt
with
their crosses into the box, initially by just punching
balls away and subsequently, when he was reminded
by the crowd that he had two hands, by catching
most that was thrown at him.
There
was one worrying moment when, with Marlon King
bearing down to the
byline, Jensen inexplicably went walkies to
the six-yard line. Thankfully King elected to cross
to a non-existent colleague at the far post instead
of guiding the ball into an empty net. Jensen
went
down to another shot to his left to turn it round
the post for another good save, while Mo Camara
put in a timely tackle to thwart King, who had
found himself in acres of space down the middle.
In
between, Burnley were always dangerous on the counter,
with Luke Chadwick hitting just wide from a good
position and then just failing to get to a Blake
cross. Would Gillingham survive a third goal? Would
the temporary stand we were sat in survive a third
goal? The answers duly came with some 15 minutes
to go. Gills won a corner, and made a complete
mess of it. The ball was hoofed upfield, where
Little played in Robbie Blake who had a clear run
at goal.
He only paused to cut inside a pursuing defender,
and hit a right-foot shot for number three. Our
stand survived – Gillingham didn’t.
There was no fight left in them, and the best chances
fell to Alan Moore (on for Ian, who had picked
up a knock somewhere on the way), but he was unlucky
to see two efforts beaten out in the same attack
in the final moments.
So,
a great result, and a taste of things to come?
It was difficult to imagine that this was the same
team that could only muster two shots at goal against
Wigan two days before. There was a marked improvement
both in individual and in collective performances.
I found it very difficult to pick the customary
man of the match. I have already aired my views
on the central defenders. Little and Chadwick tormented
the opposition all afternoon, while Weller had
a good game despite a jerky patch midway through
the second half where it seemed that he couldn’t
get the ball away from the danger area. Blake was
also impressive, and worked hard for the cause.
IMMM had a great first half, conjuring a goal out
of thin air, but tired in the second half. Jensen
was quite solid, in all senses, but luckily his
few mistakes were not exploited by Gills.
Of
the two subs, Chaplow, on for Chadwick, did OK,
although
he seemed to be playing as a lone striker at
times; Alan Moore had a couple of late chances
but didn’t
seem to be in the thick of things for most of
the time. But, since the choice is obligatory (how’s
that for a contradiction?), I will go for Little.
He controlled the ball well, beat defenders with
ease and made very good use when in possession.
True, he missed a glorious chance early on, but
then he had a hand in two of the three goals.
On
the way back to the Will Adams, I had to say farewell
to all my new-found Claret friends as I had to
catch the first train back to London to watch a
musical. I would have loved to join the post match
ritual at the pub, as I can imagine the celebrations
that followed the first three points of the season.
I would like to thank everybody for making me feel
so welcome, and for making my prolonged stay so
enjoyable. Six points would have been better – but you can’t win them all, can you? Special
thanks go to Patrick and Dermot for all their help.
I
had a relaxing evening at the theatre watching
Joseph and his amazing Claret and Blue
Coat, and
that was the perfect ending to a perfect day. Other
colours? You mean there are other colours?
Team: Jensen,
West, May, Branch, Camara, Little, Weller, Grant,
Chadwick (Chaplow, 78), Blake, Ian Moore (Alan
Moore, 66).
Subs not used: Gnohere, O'Neill, Scott.
Scorers: Ian
Moore 27, West 30, Blake 77.
Referee: M
R Halsey (Bolton).
Attendance: 7,645.
Joe's
man of the match: Glen Little.
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.
