One cold night in Lancashire
Burnley 1 Oldham 0, 20th October 1998
Steven Tattersall
A relief to see the three points in
the bag. They wouldn’t let me in the Press Box so I settled for my usual seat in the
Longs... North St... Hargreaves Stand.
Clarets fielded the same team and formation as
for Notts County, with Scott and Phil Eastwood added on the bench. Oldham initially had a
flat back four then switched to five at the back as far as I could see.
Burnley marked the opening with control of the
game and a few half-chances, without forcing a decent save. A dribbly free-kick from
Armstrong, Smith nearly meeting a fantastic cross from Little and a powered cross-shot
from Payton that was sliced behind from an Oldham defender all went close without causing
any desperate moments. Meanwhile, Oldham looked like a side who were on their way down,
and oozed enough lack of confidence to make Paul Smith look arrogant (well, nearly).
By the end of the first ten minutes the pattern
of play was more or less set: the midfield looked OK, we started to stroke the ball around
at the back (!) causing Ward the odd kicking problem, and Little was showing the Oldham
No. three a variety of party pieces. Even Smith was knocking a couple of lovely long
passes about and cutting inside. However, all this nice stuff wasn’t really hurting
Oldham who always looked to have an extra man at the back even when Little got behind his
man.
Chances still came and went (Cooke floated one
on to the top of the bar from distance, a couple of powerful but wayward chances for
Robertson, a terrific through-ball for Cooke from Vindheim) and Oldham were never really
in it. Their left back had the chance to run and shoot but that was about it. Adrian
Littlejohn made a nuisance of himself for Oldham, but soon Matt Heywood was put out to
mark him and shut him up a fair bit.
Half time saw Oldham fired up for... ooh...
about two minutes, where they forced a couple of corners. By now the rain was teaming down
and the wind working against a Clarets punt up field, but still we largely controlled the
midfield. There was only one team going to win... but with Burnley, you’re never
quite sure.
Smith was taken off and replaced by Phil
Eastwood, Little got himself booked for a bit of retaliation, then prompted danced through
the entire massed ranks of the Oldham defence from a short free kick, only to belt it wide
from ten yards. Irritation crept in: a truly appalling offside decision against Cooke,
possibly the worst I’ve seen for a fair few seasons, started to rub it in. Swan was
thrown up front, so we... well I’m not quite sure what formation we played after
that, I think Armstrong dropped back to do some covering, so it was a sort of 3-4-3 cum
2-5-3. Littlejohn went close in amongst the confusion.
And then the goal came. Five minutes earlier
Phil Eastwood had wriggled free on the left wing and run in from the by-line, drawn and
dropped the keeper and then put the ball over off the bar. A bit more pressure and we
forced a corner, looped across to the combined heads of Heywood and Reid, a bounce off -
was it Scott, on for Vindheim? - the ball sat up and Cooke hooked it over his head into
the roof of the net from all of two yards. It was too cold to throw my baseball cap in the
air, but it sure felt good.
Even better was that I felt confident we
wouldn’t let a goal in. There was a bit of pressure and a ball bounced off
Littlejohn’s bonce half a yard off the goal line, but overall no panic. There was
even time for Payton to get really annoyed as Cooke ripped through the Oldham back line
and crossed for Payton, who beat the goalkeeper by sending him the wrong way, only to see
the ball bounce off the keeper’s trailing feet. Of his goals so far, only one has
been in the second half.
And that was that. Oldham looked shell-shocked
and pretty ropy, especially at the back: we were competent but found it hard to break them
down. 17 points, 15th place: can’t complain. The only problem is not
making the most of all the chances Little creates. Although the midfield moved it around
better, with Armstrong playing the central distributor, Robertson covering for Smith and
Vindheim alongside Little, and they got forward a lot more than on Saturday, they are
still a bit shot-shy. There’s time yet...
Team: Ward, Swan,
Armstrong, Vindheim (Scott 69), Heywood, Reid, Little, Robertson, Cooke, Payton, P Smith
(Eastwood Smith 51). SNU: C Smith
The away game
