Time Enough At Last
Rotherham 3 Burnley 0
Report by Firmo
I'm sorry. Fairly early on I realised I was at the wrong match. I'd gone to Millmoor to see Burnley play Rotherham. Really where I should have been was at the game that mattered: at Selhurst Park to see Palace beat Walsall. That was where our future was being decided, not Rotherham, and we had about as much influence over events in South East London as we did over our own destiny in South Yorkshire.
I suppose it was inevitable that after winning two games in a row to take us to the brink of survival we would offer up another 'throw one in' performance. Well we can never go too long without one of these, can we? And thankfully, apart from representing poor value to those who'd travelled and paid, it didn't matter. Palace duly obliged. Or should I say, Walsall did. A further Walsall defeat meant the maths came down in our favour one hurdle short of the final. In the end we stayed up, and for that we must be grateful.
So I should be happy? Relieved not to be in the Second Division, certainly. It's only when you start seriously contemplating the prospect of trips to Second Division grounds that you realise how good life in the First Division is. We even managed, after a fashion, a promotion party on the way home. It turned out that the drunker I got, the less bothered I became about the day's game and the gladder I grew with the simple fact that next season we would be playing at the same level. But I can't pretend to be happy about the way we've played. What happened in this game was entirely familiar this season: bad goalkeeping, poor defending, unforced errors, soft goals, limited options for attacking players, no one in the opposition's box for rare promising moves and an all round lack of fight and shape. Oh, and an inability to vary the tactical pattern in response to a game slipping away from us. Come on, we've all seen this before. Stan even slated the team after the match and apologised to us. Again, this has become familiar. Isn't there a law of diminishing returns here?
The irritating thing is that we learned nothing from this game that we didn't know a long time ago. Jensen was hopeless. Camara was shocking. But we knew this in August. These two are neck and neck for worst player of the season. They have been consistently bad. And this was the 45th successive League game both of them have started. I was pleased when we had that summer clear out. But Stan desperately needed to get the replacements right. What we ended up with was worse than what we had before. Camara is a worse left-back than Briscoe; Jensen is a worse goalkeeper than Beresford. We've gone backwards.
It's tempting to single out these two misfits, but in this match pretty much everyone showed a lack of fight. As a team we laid down and obliged Rotherham with the points they needed to be sure of playing us again next season. They had a party - survival plus the end of terracing at Millmoor - and we never seriously looked like spoiling it.
First goal was a shambles. The defence that doesn't play offside tried to play offside again. Jensen was then forced to do the thing he is worst at - make his mind up. With the player charging towards goal the keeper has to either keep his nerve, stay on the line and stand up, or come out, make the interception, and accept the red card. What you don't do is set off, change your mind, hesitate and then set off again but fail to get there. One nil as Butler's shot rolled into the empty net and Jensen clattered him too late. All season Jensen has been costing us goals because of hesitancy and poor decision-making. Nothing new.
Second goal came because Camara can't defend. Lesson one on day one at the school of how to be a fullback must surely be never to turn your back on a player who's running at you. Guess what Mo did? Jensen's predictable hesitation was all else that was required to make absolutely sure it was a goal. A lot of space on the pitch and a lot of goal to aim at meant it was easy for Stockdale to make it 2-0. Now cue that other thing we've seen game after game: Burnley players arguing over whose fault the goal was. This time Johnrose looked like he wanted to punch Jensen. How many times have we seen something like this? It used to be once or twice a season; now it's most games. Can this be good?
There was nothing of any merit from Burnley in the first half. At half time the talk was all of what was happening at Selhurst Park. It was 0-0, and that would do. No one seemed to think we could do anything to get the point we needed to put our survival in our own hands.
At least the substitutions were positive. Both fullbacks off, Adebola and Chadwick on, with Weller and Branch filling in in place of Roche and Camara. It says something that both makeshift fullbacks looked a lot more solid than the specialists we brought in last summer to fill those positions. Personally I'd have brought Abbey on as well. At the very least we might have seen a goalkeeper capable of making a different kind of mistake.
The team as a whole played with more purpose in the second half, although with precious little penetration - another defining trait this season. Little, bound to leave, couldn't produce the last big performance we demanded, while Blake was introspective, head down, prone to frivolous noodling - sort of a jazz footballer. Chadwick, having inexplicably dyed his hair white, only succeeded in drawing attention to the fact that he has no bottle. Meanwhile, Adebola lumbered. He tries, but he is painfully slow. A few years back he was a good footballer, but sad though it is, sometimes players are never the same after a serious injury. Perhaps he can get fit and recover some kind of career, but why should it be at our expense? We don't need another Alan Moore. Now there's nothing at stake, I would return the loan players and ensure that at least one or two young players are given an opportunity against Su'lan'.
Despite some better play their goalkeeper was never tested. We were still second to all the 50-50 balls, never competing with Rotherham for the knock-downs and second balls. Around their box, they had total supremacy. Clearances were never contested. Heading clear was easy. At least O'Neill got an opportunity to come on and take a couple of long throws. He replaced Chaplow, who by virtue of putting himself about a bit, was my man of the match.
Two duly became three when the referee gave a penalty for handball against Branch, rather harshly I thought - it looked to hit him in the chest - but it was down the other end and you get no kind of view from the away end at Millmoor. By this stage there was a large gathering of Rotherham supporters behind that touchline. They were always going to come on, and the referee seemed to want to give them an excuse. Rotherham sealed the game with Proctor's poor penalty hit too straight, but fortunately for them Jensen had gone to ground. We then had the predictable pitch invasion.
I generally try to stay until the end these days, so I hung around as the game petered out. Full time brought the expected pitch invasion from Rotherham, and a corresponding, smaller incursion by Burnley wankers who could act like big men with only a thick line of police between them and the celebrating home fans. Lots of people in the stand seemed to be terribly interested in this. I sloped off. While walking away from the ground the news broke that Palace had scored late in their game, and that we were safe, for another season at least.
I'm left with this sneaking suspicion that partly we stayed up because some of the other clubs were so bad. Were we lucky this season that three clubs seemingly intent on self-destruction were there to finish below us? Are there normally three clubs in such a shambles taking up the relegation places? We've had the extremely welcome demise of the Milton Keynes Franchise; Bradford with two bouts of administration, boardroom bitterness and the added handicap of Bryan Robson; and Walsall setting the controls for oblivion when on the brink of safety. Next year?
Season ends are always tinged with sadness, but I'm relieved this one's over. There is much work for those at the Club to do in this summer. It should include finding a new manager. I would conclude by saying that the summer is important - but I seem to recall saying that at about this time last year.
PS - The day after I finished writing the above report the Club announced they would not be renewing Stan Ternent's contract. I considered re-writing the report but decided to let it stand. Sadly, there were a lot of days like this towards the end.
Burnley: Jensen, Roche (Adebola, 45), May, McGregor, Camara (Chadwick, 45), Little, Johnrose, Chaplow (O'Neill, 74), Weller, Branch, Blake.
Subs not used: Abbey, Pilkington.
Scorers: (Rotherham) Butler 15, Stockdale 39, Proctor 85 (pen).
Referee: P Walton (Winwick).
Attendance: 9,157.
Firmo's Man of the Match: Richard 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.
