Why? Why? Why? ...Diallo!
Ipswich Town 6 Burnley 1
Report by Steve Wray
OK, OK: I admit it. I decided on the headline for the report before the kick-off, in the Greyhound pub (serving a perfectly acceptable pint of Adnams). Despite cries of derision from fellow drinkers, who informed me that Mr Diallo was injured and would therefore play no part in the proceedings, and that a more acceptable headline should have read "Where? Where? Where? ...Diallo!", I decided to stick to my guns and leave the headline alone; and, I think, justifiably.
The questions raised were predicted easily enough prior to the game, and would come back to haunt all Burnley fans (yes, even the idiot that I met on the train going back to Liverpool Street, who seemed to blame all five first-half goals on the ineptitude of Mr Joslin and his assistants). Even with the benefit of a pair of claret and blue tinted specs, I failed to see his reasoning, and left him to his rant as he left the train at Colchester. The referee had mercifully blown the half time whistle to allow us to leave on a much earlier train than we'd intended.
Why does Stan persist in thinking that Branch is a centre half? At the beginning of the season, I predicted that we would be relegated if we continued to play Branch as our "stopper" (those First Division strikers must really be trembling in their boots with the prospect of playing against him!). It came as no surprise to me that the recent change in our fortunes coincided with Branch's confinement to the bench, and a centre half pairing of May and Todd. That we had lost Todd (recalled to Ewood) and May (injured / suspended) before this game, and had to start with a right back and a left winger as our pairing at the heart of the defence, shows just how thin our squad is (a glance at the back of the programme, showing Burnley's squad of 20 and Ipswich's squad of 30, only goes to emphasise the gap still further). Surely this isn't the same Ipswich Town that came so close to having to go into administration because of the debts they had? And yet they are still able to bring in the likes of Mahon, Kuqi and Bart-Williams - not to mention the pre-season raid for Diallo. Something isn't right here (or is it just me?), and Stan and the Board have to address this issue or suffer similar thrashings on a regular basis. What price another six if we don't get another centre half before our trip to those lovable cockney chaps at the weekend?
Why can we never find a good keeper? Not since the halcyon days of Alan Stevenson have we had a goalkeeper worthy of the name. Yes, Marlon and Nik had good games from time to time in recent seasons, but still didn't have the consistency required to be called "good
keepers". And this fat (sorry, "structurally challenged") Danish bloke is one of the worst players ever to wear the number 1 at Burnley Football Club (or any club for that matter), and it is becoming increasingly embarrassing watching him pretend to be a footballer. Should we really be surprised that the former West Brom third choice is so poor?! The sooner we replace him with anyone resembling a goalkeeper, the better. I believe that Paul Jones is looking for regular first team football, and we could do a lot worse than to try to tempt him to the Turf on a loan deal. The goalkeeper is the most important component of any back four, and how good / bad he is determines how confident the other defenders are, and ultimately how well they play. With Denmark's answer to Nelly the Elephant, it is no wonder that our defence has no confidence at all. Coupled with Di Branchio, this is a relegation waiting to happen. Stan and Barry: the time to act is now! If we don't speculate to accumulate, we will end up being the most financially sound club in Division 2. Is that
really what you want?
Why does the Board insist on maintaining this financial stranglehold on the purse strings? Yes, I know we are in dire straits financially (and I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of our bank account), but it is somewhat galling to lose out on players to clubs who are reportedly in a worse state than we are. Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town are two cases in point. The way we allowed Ipswich to steal Diallo from us in the pre-season is a glaring example of a lack of ambition from the Club, and shows a disparity in attitude between our Board and the boards of other First Division clubs desperate for success. We seem happy to settle for second best in the hope that something better is around the corner, harping back whenever we can to the loss of funds brought about by the ITV Digital collapse. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. What's done is done, and we have to get on with it - but please, please, please, with some more ambition!
Now to the game (or the first half of it, anyway!). Woody had proudly boasted that this was to be his 600th away game, and he had seen us concede some 996 goals (apologies if I haven't got these figures exactly right, but I don't have the same head for figures as our illustrious boozer). We joked happily in the pub that we may well see the 1000th goal today, but I think even the most pessimistic of us were surprised when this happened within the first 20 minutes of the game! In truth, we started brightly enough, with Blake prominent in early attacks when we caused their defence some problems. But all this was to change after 20 minutes when our nervous defending (Branch wandering around like a lost sheep, when he should have been keeping an eye on Counago; Roche doing his own impression of a rabbit startled in Shefki Kuqi's headlights; and Jensen being his usual dominant self - yeah, right!) resulted in a 20-minute blitz which saw a Counago brace and goals from Jermaine Wright and Bart-Williams. In truth, Bart Simpson would have scored against this shambolic collection of Clarets. A Weller sitter on 40 minutes was to be the last meaningful attack of the game by the Clarets that I witnessed; and when the unlucky Chaplow deflected a speculative Ipswich shot into his own net on the stroke of half time, it was clearly time to leave. "Forgive me, Diallo, I just couldn't take any more", as some Welsh crooner may well have sung!
On the train home, we learned that Burnley must have mustered something of a second-half revival. My cynicism suggests that this was due more to Ipswich taking their foot off the accelerator than any improvement in the Burnley defence, although admittedly I wasn't there. Flicking through the programme on the way home, I noticed to my distress that Ipswich have a certain Martin Dobson as their scout in the Bolton area. Surely this is the same Clarets legend of yesteryear, and one has to question why he is not plying his trade (either as a scout or as a player, for that matter, given his resolute performance as a sweeper in the mid eighties!) for Burnley, instead of the Tractor boys? I would be far more confident with Dobbo at the heart of our defence on Saturday than I am with the prospect of Branch and Roche facing Connolly and Defoe. For the first time in a very long time, I am not looking forward to Saturday's game. Another hefty defeat beckons, unless we make more forays into the transfer market before the weekend.
Burnley: Jensen, West, Roche, Branch, Camara, Ian Moore, Chaplow, Weller, Farrelly, Blake, Facey.
Subs not used: Grant, Chadwick, O'Neill, Pilkington.
Scorers: (Ipswich) Counago 20 and 22, Wright 28, Bart-Williams 30, Chaplow 40 (og), Kuqi 90 / (Burnley) Facey 49.
Referee: Phil Joslin (Newark).
Attendance: 22,048.
Razor's Man of the Match: "How can you give a man of the match for that debacle? If pressed I'd probably give it to Chaplow."
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.
