G'dnight Irene and ta very much
Bristol Rovers 3 Burnley 4, 9th
January 1999
Tim Quelch
This fast and
binge business is getting bulimic. Except there’s no balance. Too often this season,
like last, there’s been bugger all on the menu and bugger all service. With due
respects to animal rights, it’s as if Bobby Sands hadn’t gone out of fashion.
But you know how it is. When you’ve really denied yourself. No Mars Bars, no pasties,
no suet puddings. Then letting go is absolute tops. On today’s away daze, we could
stuff ourselves, just as our lads stuffed Rovers. And it tasted bloody good.
As if we didn’t know, money doesn’t just talk, it
often commands. Burnley decides to invest heavily in some class acts and there’s an
immediate difference. We had Steve Davis at his authoritative best. Composed and combative
in both boxes, he thumps in a header at one end and hacks off the line at the other.
Unlike some of our erstwhile, and best-forgotten, defenders, he knows what should be done
at which end. In a defence under siege, he calmly breaks up an attack and starts playing.
At last a footballing centre back at Burnley! Not seen since, well… Steve Davis.
We had new boy, Micky Mellon, who with a name like that has
much to prove in life. He certainly played as if this weighed heavily upon him. But
perhaps it was the Rovers taunts of ‘shithead’ which helped feed his fire
(Mellon began his career at Ashton Gate). Whatever, he has good ball skills, a good motor
and seems as hard as nails. Nobody has successfully filled John Deary’s boots over
the last four years. It looks as if Mellon will, with interest, too. It was his corner
that enabled Steve Davis to head in at the far post. Better still, it was his break on the
right which set Payton up for the net-busting third.
But the good news doesn’t end here. We had Graham Branch
playing wide on the left. Like Glen Little, he is tall, able to win important aerial
challenges. However, his greatest asset is his pace. Christ, can this lad move. While
Rovers’ defenders prevaricated, there he was, in like flint, rounding ‘keeper
Jones and slotting home Burnley’s second from a tight angle. Crichton certainly
played his part at the other end, as well, pushing a fierce Cureton drive just around the
post and holding onto a sharp cross under pressure. He may have committed himself too
early, allowing Cureton to lob him for Rovers’ first equaliser, but that is perhaps
too picky.
OK this was heady stuff. But we can’t say that the
problems are gone. Despite Davis’ commanding presence, the defence didn’t
convince in the first half. Reid and Morgan both gave the ball away suicidally and Burnley
were as troubled by Rovers’ speed and movement as they were by Fulham. They picked up
several bookings mainly due to desperate lunges. Although in Morgan’s case it was a
blatant professional foul, in order to avert a lightning counter attack. The marking was
sometimes sloppy. I thought Morgan was the worst offender here, too. Roberts’ second
equaliser was certainly down to poor marking. Although there was an improvement after the
interval, still Rovers managed to get one-on-one with Crichton on several occasions.
Fortunately, their finishing wasn’t as sharp as our Burnley lads. Roberts’ miss
at 3-4 was quite incredible. If Burnley are going to play 4-4-2, as they did here, they
can’t afford to play as flat as they did in the first half and I’m not sure that
either back is good enough in a full back role. Both were creamed regularly by
Rovers’ widemen.
Unlike the Fulham fiasco, Burnley had re-discovered how to
hurt the opposition. This time they had pace and power going forward, so that they could
hit Rovers hard on the break. There was something else in their locker apart from long
hopeless punts. They had a means of carrying the ball forward, a means of running at the
opposition, so at last Payton and Cooke had a service, and how they thrived on it. Cooke
was back to his best as the tough targetman, holding up the play for Payton and our
rejuvenated midfield. He took his goal superbly. Having been released by Branch, he
squirmed past the Rovers’ central defenders and from a tightish angle and blasted
past Woods at the ‘keeper’s right near post. This put Burnley into the lead for
the fourth time. This time they didn’t squander it. In fact Cooke should have had a
second. After he had done the hard bit, forcing his way past the Rovers’ rearguard,
he proceeded to smack the ball against Jones’ legs with the goal at his mercy. At
5-3, we could have had a more relaxed run-in. (Let’s forget Darlington shall we?) But
no, we had to endure more Rovers’ pressure as we tightened with the tension and the
increasing cold.
This was a truly amazing game, played at phenomenal pace. It
was much more like a five-a-side contest than the fully-fledged thing. This had everything
to do with both teams’ attacking instincts, speed and defensive frailties. Besides
all else, it featured some brilliant goals. My pick of the seven was Payton’s,
principally because of the fast, powerful build up and Mellon’s accurate and pacy
cross. But David Lee’s third equaliser for Rovers was a truly scorching effort, too.
He must have hit it from around 25 yards, but it was quite unstoppable fizzing past
Crichton’s right side.
And just to complete the joy, I got into a spat with some
Rovers’ fans. Having failed to get tickets for the away end, our party ended up in
the Rovers’ members’ enclosure, thanks to our superficial respectability and
some dozy stewardship. In fairness, wild cheering for the opposition is probably
considered unconventional behaviour here. But hey, we’re rounded souls are we not? We
can give and take a bit, can’t we? Well, no actually. Their lot could give their bit
all right, but they didn’t like it up them. Once might have been tolerated but four
times was pushing it, apparently. Sod it, though, tell me who isn’t going to open
their gob when rations have been lean and there’s a bloody feast for the taking? So,
all in all, a damn fine day. OK Stan, let’s have some more now. I don’t know
about you but we’re pissed off with Ryvita. Especially after having tasted Tiramasu
again.
Team: Crichton, Pickering, Morgan,
Mellon, Davis, Reid, Robertson, Armstrong, Cooke (Swan 80), Payton, Branch. SNU: Brass,
Maylett.
Firmo's report
and Hego's report, plus the London
Gasheads' memories of the day
