Clarets 1 vs 0 Rovers
Burnley 1 Bristol Rovers 0, 5
February 2000
Igor Wowk
Can this scoreline be a premonition? Sadly
Bristol neglected to don their blue and white quarters so we could savour the full effect
of beating a team dressed in a set of naval signalling flags, so...
On a windy, but unseasonably warm
afternoon the Clarets took the field against the table topping side Bristol Rovers, who
had brought a considerable number of fans, circa 1,500 up from the West Country to enliven
the atmosphere.
Stan provided the answer to all the pre-match
speculation line-up he would play by fielding the 11 thus.
Crichton
Cox, Davis, Thomas
Little, Armstrong
Mullin, Cook, Johnrose
Cooke, Payton
Subs: Branch (for Armstrong, 20 mins), Mellon and Jeppo
(15 and 10 mins to go for Little and Cook).
No pain, no gain
Having made the long trip from Suffolk I was looking
forward to an entertaining high scoring game with plenty of cultured football; however, as
events unfolded the drama proved to be of a different nature. Rovers pretty soon made it
clear that no prisoners were to be taken and the Clarets responded in kind. Consequently
the opening phase was littered with free kicks and there were few structured moves of any
kind. Rovers are the classic Second Division side with a big goalie, an even bigger back
three and a heel snapping terrier like midfield. To counterbalance this, they have the
experienced Walters wide on the right and the very tricky and pacy Roberts in the middle,
with Cureton as his sidekick.
To call them a long ball team is to over simplify a
bit. However, their game plan was to get it up to Roberts a.s.a.p., easily their most
impressive player. They are like a second division version of Leicester City.
Their only moment of real danger occurred about midway
in the first half when Roberts beat Thomas all ends up, and then glided away from him and
found his partner Cureton at the back post only for him to squander his chance by heading
wide. Shortly after this, Mitchell summoned all his years of experience and Premiership
class by nobbling Roberts at the first available opportunity in order to reduce Robert's
M.P.H. to a level that he could comfortably deal with. He even touched the ball first to
make the booking look a bit harsh, but the trailing foot making contact and follow through
were a bit of a giveaway and Mitch took his yellow card like a real pro, after patting his
prostrate victim's head.
Rumours of Steve
Davis' death greatly exaggerated
Meanwhile up the other end, Cooke came close with a
glancing header and Davis, performing to his previous high standards unleashed a well
flighted, powerful shot from the left hand corner of the box, catching the keeper off his
ground. The shot looked net bound from the second it left his laces, however,
frustratingly it appeared to come down off the end of the bar and on to the post and out
again, a superb shot and with the outcome typical of Big Stevie's misfortune this season.
Crichton seems to be the only keeper he can beat.
Kiss of the day
On the half hour mark, the game's turning point
occurred when, after a scuffle in the Bristol box, the ref entered into a long discussion
with linesman and beckoned Payton and a Bristol player. The Rovers man was yellowed and,
to everyone's astonishment, Payton was red carded. Shortly after this I took the
opportunity to recycle some of the Premier I had taken on board, and having posed the
question to all and sundry in the Longside "G" block urinals as to what he had
done, two lads turned round to say emphatically that Andy had stuck the nut on a Rovers
player. So seemingly Payton had got himself sent off, although I felt it could have all
been sorted out as the two protagonists seemed to have kissed and made up by the time the
official's debate had been completed. If Payton did give his opponent the "Wigan
kiss" then there is really only one result these days, as the ref would have been in
hot water himself for not sending him off. However I am sure that Andy was just showing
his marker how he was going to head it in when his opponent accidentally got in the way.
For a while the incident seemed to galvanise the
Clarets, and indeed Cooke produced another glancing header close to the goal. As I
recollect, Crichton had little to do in the first half and the new back three unit had
looked very solid. The new boy had settled in well, Davis, possibly spurred on by the new
competition, looked a different player to the one on show at Notts County and Mitchell was
Mitchell. Two other notable incidents in the first half were the substitution of Armstrong
for Branch and Johnrose crippling the number three who had got Payton the first use of the
soap and towels. It transpired later that Stan's change was a tactical one to push Walters
back into his own half to counter Branch's more offensive capability. Whilst Lenny
produced what can only be described as an act of retribution against Challis, who was
marginally off the pitch down by the Jimmy Mac/Longside corner flag. A neat incision just
below the knee served Challis well with the ball seeming to be of secondary interest.
However the ref. gave a goal kick and of course, they are always right.
In our party we were all deeply saddened to hear that
Challis had been substituted at half time. Somehow I don't think this was tactical. I
think the fact that Johnrose escaped without even a booking or a free kick speaks volumes
for the quality of refereeing and Bristol's mistaken tactics of trying to mix it with the
current B.F.C. line up.
Seconds away ding
ding
Surprisingly after half time Bristol maintained the
same formation when they might have left two at the back to mark Cooke and go one to one
on Burnley's back three. This allowed the Clarets to keep the oppo. at bay and make the
odd foray into the opponents half, and they looked reasonably comfortable and indeed were
coping well. Bristol maintained their one and only ploy of feeding Roberts and shooting
from any distance to try and catch Crichton out. Roberts did break through once with what
was one of Bristol's few clear cut chances. Fortunately he went for placement rather than
power and Crichton saved comfortably.
Goal of the century
With time eking away and the vast majority of us
probably happy to escape with a point in the circumstances, the lads out on the pitch had
different ideas. The midfield and Cooke were chasing and closing down their opponents,
with the crowd cheering every challenge and in down-in-the-tube-station-during-the-blitz
mode, some of the Rovers players were being forced into errors. One of these resulted in
Mullin (?) gaining the ball and feeding it to Little centre
field about 30 yards out and confronted by the Bristol back three. We all know what Glen
can do in these situations and not surprisingly he went round the first man, the second
and then the third; the surprise was that he didn't go back and do it again. Eventually he
found himself one on one with the keeper. With three sides of the stadium willing him to
score, Glen seemed to hesitate for five minutes, which drew the keeper into a dive before
producing a sublime chip to hoist the ball high into the back of the net. The whole
stadium exploded into an unbelievable wave of euphoria. It was one of the best goals I
have ever seen produced under the most difficult circumstances. It was a goal similar in a
way to the one he scored at Stoke last year, except this time they were 0 - 0, 10 vs 11,
playing the top of the league. To put it in context, none of the MOTD goal of the month
entries held a candle to it in terms of skill, control and quality of finish. Modestly
afterwards, Little said he would have loved to have passed the ball, but there was on-one
near him. Oh yeah?
Pirates pressure
Predictably the defence came under massive pressure as
Bristol rained in shots and gained a sequence of corners. They got some stuff on target
but Crichton was commanding, ( yes I can't believe it either) including one grab from a
corner beyond his six yard box. The rest stood firm around him and after a very tense
final 10 minutes, the ref sent us all into another wave of delirium when he finally blew
the whistle.
The Clarets had pulled off an incredible achievement
against all the odds and the only negative note can be that only about 12,000 Claret fans
were there to see it, when the performance deserved a full house.
Net result
Up to now I have not been a big Ternent fan, following
the drenching I got at the Fulham debacle last season. You can quibble if you like with
one or two team selections, substitutions etc. However more important than that, he has
put belief back into the players that they are good enough to beat anybody in this
Division, on their day, and although this was 1-0, under the circumstances it was far from
a negative performance.
All good sides are built from the back, and it looks as
if we have now got a rearguard that you would need a tank to get through. The midfield now
looks well balanced, with the control and guile of Cook, counterbalanced by the aggression
and drive of Mullin and Johnrose. Up front Cooke was outstanding. He took some brutal
punishment and picked himself up and went back for more. For nearly an hour he covered one
half of the pitch almost on his own at times, and at the end, he could hardly run a step.
However countless times he held on and brought others into the game and went close to
scoring twice. Lastly I have had my reservations about Crichton before now, but he was
faultless and commanding on Saturday.
Ternent has had the guts to show faith in the players
and now, so should we. On the other hand those who want special treatment like Weller, let
them ship out, as IMHO the early substitution of Armstrong indicates that Ternent's
decisions are made with the interests of the team, not the individuals, and overall the
players seem to accept this.
Lastly the crowd were brilliant on Saturday, a stirring
rendition of Super Glen following the goal, instead of the banal "You're not Singing
Anymore" and a heartfelt "We love you Burnley" at the end.
What a perfect day, capped by Rovers losing and Wigan
and Preston yielding two points differential. With Ternent's refusal to get excited either
over wins ("three more points and we should be safe") or losses, one senses that
Ternent's previous experience may give BFC the edge over some of the others in the race,
and I imagine a certain amount of "bricking" will be occurring in one or two
camps. Notably at Wigan, where Benson will need no reminding as to what happened to his
predecessor when he failed to get up at the first time of asking.
Team:
Crichton, Cox, Thomas, Davis, Armstrong (Branch 22), Little (Mellon 75), Johnrose, Cook
(Jepson 80), Mullin, Payton, Cooke. Subs not used: Smith and Weller.
Links -
More from this game and the away game
