Bloody hell Moore!
Warsaw 3 Burnley 1, 29th August 1998
Firmo
This was another game we did not
deserve to lose, albeit for reasons different from those at Chesterfield. This was perhaps
our best performance of the season so far, although competition has not been fierce.
Ternent’s calculated act of anger at the game against York clearly had the desired
effect, and served to stiffen the resolve of the players who have not yet been shown the
door to fight for places. That and the inclusion of new additions Armstrong and Swan
(pushing the average age of the team up by a few years) meant that this was an encouraging
performance that gave us something to build on for the future.
Several injured players were restored to the
team, although it’s questionable how many of them were fit. Our entire forward line
of Cooke and Payton, Little and Smith, seemed to be struggling. Andy Cooke’s lack of
sharpness was the cause of an uncharacteristic string of misses which could be said to
have cost us the game. He missed one chance a matter of feet from goal that caused some to
reminisce about Brendan O’Connell’s Miss At York.
It would, however, be unfair to lay the blame at
Cooke’s door. He will score goals in other games from harder chances. Most of our
team impressed. One who did not was the lollipop man, Neil Moore, whose every game makes
it easier to believe he was hiding in the showers when Stan announced his cull. He was
hopeless, never in position, ensuring Swan had a difficult debut by making him cover.
Moore has to take the lion’s share of blame for the two crucial goals. For the first,
caught out as usual by the fact that attacking players don’t often just give you the
ball, he stretched too late, got a foot to the ball but failed to make an adequate
clearance. Porter fired the ball in, but it cannoned off a defender and fell at the feet
of Brissett who, stood unmarked and surprised, fired home. Ward had dived to stop the
first shot; it was a genuinely unlucky goal to give away, but it still stemmed from lousy
defending by a man who has no place in this team.
After that we panicked and looked vulnerable.
For about the next ten minutes, if Walsall had got it together, they could have done
enough to have the away end empty come half time. As it is, we held on and gradually got
back into it.
We started the second half stronger and when the
equaliser came it was well deserved, after a good spell of pressure. The hopelessly unfit
Weller was replaced by the lightweight Australian Robertson, who produced a twenty yard
shot touched over but thereafter did nothing. Walsall failed to clear the resulting
corner, Little crossed the loose ball and Armstrong, unmarked on the far post, stooped to
score a debut goal. Played out of position, Armstrong attacked well, someway compensating
for Smith’s possibly terminal inability to run at defenders as of old. After that we
continued to push forward. Cooke put one in but a narrow offside was justly given, and
Armstrong tried to grab a second but the referee sadly noticed he had two hands on the
ball he’d claimed to head, and his efforts earned a booking.
Then, with a point looking the least we would
come away with, they scored. Warning signs had come before when Weller had failed to pick
up a ball from our attack and Walsall broke to come close, stopped well by Ward. Now they
broke from our attack again, and with Swan up front and that man Moore nowhere near even
the possibility of a challenge, Wrack had a simple job to run on and score.
The third was unnecessary. In stoppage time,
Wrack ran in our penalty area, sideways away from goal, not supported by any other Walsall
player. The best he could get out of this situation was a penalty. Robertson duly obliged,
lunged, and Wrack took it.
We left disappointed, but reasonably cheered.
Burnley remain three players short of a team that could hold its own in this division. If
we assume that Armstrong should play in midfield, we need two fullbacks and a ball-winning
central midfielder. Only when Stan has had the chance to acquire these will it be fair to
judge where we stand. It’s fair to say we are a long way from another relegation
fight. If only we had a midfield, though.
Team: Ward, Moore,
Armstrong, Weller (Robertson 57), Swan, Brass, Little, Jepson, Cooke, Payton, P Smith.
SNU: C Smith, Carr-Lawton.
The home game
