On a different
day...
Luton 2 Burnley 1, 6 November 1999
Cozzo
I was quite looking forward to this one. The
thumping 5-0 win against Wrexham on Tuesday had led to a little optimism. It was the win
that I had been waiting for and all our ability had promised, but somehow we hadn't
delivered, even against a Colchester side that was looking for an opportunity to roll over
and die.
Now we were cooking and we had quite a good
record in recent times at Kenilworth Road, so it was with a purposeful stride that I set
off for the station last Saturday. I was hoping that we would go for a win and not sit
back and defend a la Bristol City.
One of the most significant things about the
Wrexham win was that the midfield had suddenly found their goalscoring touch and so
perhaps we weren't so reliant on the talents of Messrs Cooke and Payton. By all accounts
even Micky Mellon had a great game, so what could go wrong?
The depth of the squad was beginning to show;
with both full-backs and reserve Tom Cowan likely to be out, we still had Brassy and
Captain Armstrong to call on. The expected team would the same as Tuesday, although
hopefully Little would play on the right where he finished rather than the left where he
played at Barnet and apparently started against Wrexham. Davis and Thomas were returning
to their previous home and would be looking to impress, though it was interesting to see
the reaction they got from the home fans, who booed both of them, Thomas rather more than
Davis.
Decided to get off at Wimbledon and go for a
Thameslink train which would go all the way to Luton rather than trekking across town to
Kings Cross. Fortunate that, as I bumped into ex-Chairman Hego; unfortunate that as it
took absolutely ages. Eventually got into the Bricklayers Arms, which was mobbed with
London Clarets, only after having paid a £10 penalty fare. The day was starting to go
downhill.
Several rapid beers followed by a swift walk to
the ground only to be met by a queue, as there were only two turnstiles. Consequently
missed the start of the game, but the most bizarre incident was when the steward at the
gate changed the sign from £10 entry to £13 just before we got there! (Chairman Hego
later told me that he had only offered £10 and it had been accepted.) The other turnstile
did say £13, so I didn't complain, but perhaps I should have.
The game had already started when we got inside,
but I still had to go to the loo. If our esteemed Travel Sec needed reminding of why he
hated the Bee Hole toilets so much, then here was living proof. Albeit on a tiny scale, as
it seemed to have been designed to look after a Wrexham following on a February Tuesday
night.
Finally got inside the ground to find there were
no seats left. No real shouts so I presume we hadn't missed much. After about five minutes
we were moved to the other end of the stand nearest the Luton fans where another block of
seats had been made available. Now Luton has to be one of the most difficult grounds in
the country in which to find a decent seat, as you are either folded in three to get into
the seat (as it is so close to the one in front) or one of the many cunningly placed
pillars obstructs your view of one of the goals. At the second attempt the three of us
succeeded and we settled down to watch a slightly scrappy first half.
Luton were attacking the away end and definitely
had the better of it, with more sustained possession and pressure but without too many
serious threats on Crichton's goal. That was until Paul Cook was forced to hack a
goal-bound effort over the bar from almost on the line. In the meantime, Burnley looked
dangerous when they did get forward with Little making a jinking run that finished with a
tame shot, Payton not quite catching hold of a shot and Andy Cooke badly misdirecting a
diving header at the far post from Burnley's best chance of the half.
The referee was generally letting the game flow,
although I did feel he was favouring the home team on a number of the 50-50 decisions, but
then I'm supposed to as I'm biased. He definitely bottled out on one incident directly in
front of us when Douglas was heading towards the byline and Crichton came out to close him
down. Crichton made no contact with anything (by some margin it has to be said) and
Douglas went down in a heap. All the Burnley fans leapt up and screamed at him for being a
cheat. It was patently obvious that Crichton had not touched the ball, so either it was a
goal kick and a booking for Douglas or a penalty and at least a booking for Crichton. (A
sending off would have been harsh as I didn't think it was a clear goal scoring
opportunity.) Instead the referee gave a corner!
Half time and, of course, the refreshment stall
had already run out of pies, so had to resort to a hot dog. Whilst smothering it in
ketchup and mustard to try to remove as much of the taste as possible, I was intrigued to
hear the local radio report say that Luton were looking good as, "they had just
shaded the first half and would be playing with the wind in the second." I looked out
at the pitch and the sun was shining and the corner flags were barely moving. The day was
definitely becoming more and more odd.
The second half has to go down as one of the
best 45 minutes of football I've seen for a while. It was end-to-end stuff with both teams
creating chances and playing good football. For Burnley, Little was simply awesome and for
once we gave him the ball at every opportunity. He was beating defenders in the tightest
of situations and was simply a marvel to watch. Two early goals certainly kicked the game
into life; a good move from Luton down the left seemed to leave us short at the back and a
good finish from a low cross put us one nil down.
The response from the Burnley players was
magnificent. I thought at the time as they walked back to kick-off, that the body language
was very positive. Nobody was throwing tantrums or hanging their heads in despair. It was
all encouragement and keenness to get on. I sensed that it was all going to be ok.
Less than two minutes later, it was. A
cross-field ball from Armstrong found Little on the right wing about 25 yards from goal.
He made no effort to beat the defender but simply whipped in a low curling cross behind
the Luton defence. Payton and the first defender couldn't reach it, but Cookey arrived at
the far post to slam the ball home. Now we could go on and win the game, or so we all
thought. We certainly gave it a good go and Little was the inspiration, to such an extent
that at one point he jumped up onto the advertising boards shaking his fists to pump
himself and the Clarets faithful up.
Lots of pressure but clear chances were not
coming; the ball not quite falling for us; defenders just getting a toe in and strangely
enough Payton looking very out of sorts. A month ago. he was on fire and looked like he
could score every time he got the ball. On Saturday he was a shadow of that striker and he
could have been taken off earlier than he actually was.
Then a swift Luton counter attack down the right
wing and we were caught short again, but the cross looked innocuous enough until it struck
a Claret defender and dropped into the path of Neil Midgely, the striker on-loan from
Ipswich and the scorer of the first goal. He made no mistake as he placed the ball just
inside the near post and we were two-one down.
Still about twenty minutes to go, so we were by
no means out of it. Stan made a strange substitution, putting Jepson on for Brassy shortly
after, and we seemed to lose our way a bit as the formation looked all at sea. Perhaps he
felt Brassy lacked match fitness, but it certainly seemed to put the team off for a little
while. Branch and Lee both made late appearances for Payton and Armstrong respectively, as
Burnley managed to finish without a recognised full-back on the pitch. (What formation is
that?) Consequently, Luton were also creating chances and could have scored again, but
that would have been grossly unfair.
As the game neared the end, Glen got involved in
a tangle with their full-back, but I couldn't see what happened as there was a post in the
way.(Surprise! Surprise!) Everybody seemed to want to join in, but my money was on Ronnie,
although the now-substituted Douglas and some of their bench seemed to fancy their
chances. The referee calmly sorted it all out without so much as a wave of a card and the
scene was set for a dramatic late equaliser.
The Clarets were awarded a right-wing corner
which Paul Cook normally takes, but as he was obviously knackered and over the far side of
the pitch, Glen hit an out-swinger with his right foot. Davis rose majestically and headed
it into the bottom corner. Or so 2,000 Clarets fans thought, but elation turned to
despair, and even as we all started to rise the Luton keeper Tanny Abbey flung himself to
his right and clawed the ball away.
A magnificent save that enabled Luton to take
all three points, but on a different day we might have had one or two of the breaks and
gained a draw or even a win. One thing is for certain: we have played a lot worse than
that this season and got something out of it.
Team: Crichton, Brass
(Jepson 72), Armstrong (Lee 86), Davis, Thomas, Little, Mellon, Cook, Mullin, Cooke,
Payton (Branch 82).
London Clarets Man of the Match:
(1) Glen Little (2) Paul Cook.
Links - The home game and this game last season
