A pragmatic affair
Burnley 1 Blackpool, 28th November 1998
Firmo
This was much better. While the
performance still left a lot to be desired, after the ravages of the games before, the
result meant everything. Long after the memory of a dull game between two sides short on
form has faded, the satisfaction of stopping a suicidal plunge down the table will linger.
The game was low in chances. Neither keeper had
a save to make in the first half. Blackpool demonstrated an unearthly ability to kick the
ball out of play at every opportunity, occasionally sending it splashing into the muddy
water collected in front of the Beehole. It is, thankfully, some years since I’ve
visited Bloomfield Tip (I thought asking money to stand there was taking the piss,
frankly), so my memory may be deficient, but can it be that their pitch is much larger
than ours? As they found the touchline with unerring accuracy, this was one explanation
that sprung to mind. Another was that, as they were also playing with lots of defenders,
they were short of confidence and had come here for a draw.
They didn’t look anything special. Neither
did we. Yet, after Bournemouth, this ordinariness was nirvana. Little, clearly not fit,
later revealed to be playing through an injury which would rob us of his godlike services
for at least a month afterwards, still looked like our one source of attacking initiative.
Blackpool kindly consented not to mark him, which was an interesting tactical decision on
the part of their manager.
Ours had one or two to make, and this time
seemed to get it about right. With Armstrong pulled fifteen minutes before kick-off,
Heywood was handed the number eleven shirt and coped as best as he could, basically
concentrating on getting out of harm’s way. Reid looked injured and was haphazard,
and O’Kane too was unfit and struggling, but then, even when fit he still struggles.
He went off at half time to be replaced by Eastwood, who can "play anywhere."
With Little finding the going heavy, our attacking options were always going to be
limited, so there was never a goal-fest on the cards. Payton at least looked interested,
which placed him ahead of Cooke, but it was hard to judge either of our chance-starved
strikers. Matt Hewlett, graciously loaned to us by Bristol City so he can get fit for them
at our expense, looked, surprisingly, unfit. That we can forgive, but he also looked
lightweight and lazy. In other words, he was pretty much like every other pointless loan
signing who drifts in and out of the club without ever raising much interest.
There were positives, however. Both Ford and
Robertson, two players I confess to disliking, had their best games I’ve seen. They
both worked hard and showed signs of aggression. Robertson got up and down well. Brass was
outstanding in central defence, enjoying easily his finest hour so far in that difficult
position. He held the line, kept things organised and avoided the spread of the panic
which has proved our undoing in recent games. Sat behind the goal, what impressed me most
was his rapport with Crichton and the way they communicated. I know one should ideally be
able to take this for granted, but it hasn’t always been so in the past. They divided
up responsibility for balls and ran the show between them. This helped compensate for the
embarrassing spectacle of what we assumed was the reserve goalie warming up at half time,
and looking less than convincing. When the team ran out for the second half, he turned
round, and we saw the number one on his back, observed him taking his position in the goal
and realised this was our first choice keeper. That he had to practice at half time says
something about the lack of action, I suppose.
The one moment on which the game hinged came
after 67 minutes, when Payton got into the box, fell over and was gifted a penalty. It
would be fair to say that this award was dubious. However, we were due one to us, and it
still wasn’t half as dodgy as some of the decisions given against us of late. It
would take a few of these to compensate for the awful hash the referee made at
Chesterfield, for example.
Payton picked himself up, took it, hit it low
into the corner, hard, and scored.
After that, Crichton went on to impress us with
his bravery /stupidity in snapping up every ball that came into his box. He clearly
isn’t concerned about the risk of getting hurt. He’ll be a decent enough keeper,
a reasonable shot-stopper, and every so often he’ll drop a clanger. We’ve had
worse.
They had a spell of pressure towards the end,
but nothing too threatening. Ford undid much of his earlier good work when he went for a
header on the edge of our area but missed it completely, causing a momentary feeling that
we might blow it yet. Their bastards reject Ormerod was sufficiently, er,
"competitive" to allow us to call him, well, a bastards reject, providing one of
the day’s few sustained chants. And we were a bit worried when Junior Bent came on
towards the end. There was a collective intake of breath. We knew he was useful. He was
taking on Eastwood. It could have been nasty, and if he’d scored we would have found
it easy to be wise after the event, but after one early scare where he left his man for
dead, he faded, and Eastwood did a decent enough job of sticking near him.
For all that some people complained, we’ve
had worse games than this. This was the kind of low-entertainment, bog-standard fare that
gets thrown up every season, good or bad. These games happen. The crucial thing is to win
them 1-0 rather than lose 1-0. At the moment, we can only take a pragmatic approach: this
was better than getting beat, now let’s keep doing the same and see if we can manage
without Glen Little. When he returns, perhaps they can start giving us something to get
excited about.
There was no passing to speak off, but both
sides looked equally inept. The defence focused on clearing the ball, while the midfield
got through some work and set their minds on the job in hand. We didn’t lose
concentration at the end, either. All this is an improvement. Of course, it only
represents a satisfactory state of affairs if it is built on in the future.
As I sat behind the goal, with the clear winter
day turning dark and cold, I felt reasonably satisfied. It was a start.
Team: Crichton,
Robertson (Scott 88), O’Kane (Eastwood 45), Ford, Brass, Reid, Little, Hewlett,
Cooke, Payton, Heywood. SNU: Maylett.
The away match
