Born of frustration
Burnley 0 Preston 3, 4 March 2000
Whitto
In true Claret and Blue style Burnley did it
again. A full house brimming with expectation was treated to one of the worst performances
of the last few years.
Ternent shuffled his pack in the absence of the
suspended duo of Mitchell Thomas and Andy Payton, switching to 4-4-2 with Graham Branch at
left back and the serially inept Dean West at right back. The game couldn’t have got
off to a worse start. Preston attacked from the whistle and immediately won a corner,
making their game plan clear – take the game to Burnley and close down the Clarets at
all times. All credit to David Moyes, he had obviously done his homework as Preston
swarmed forward, and on the rare occasions we got the ball closed us down so efficiently
and speedily that at times the gap between the two sides was embarrassing. In the second
minute Preston swung over a corner and the on-rushing Michael Jackson was allowed to run
in unmarked to power a header past the flat footed Crichton from ten yards.
Game over! At no time after did we ever look
capable of competing on a level playing field with a more skilful and quite simply better
team. Things didn’t take long to go from bad to worse, West had already been booked
for scything down the opposition when he became involved in a fracas after another bad
tackle, and this resulted in the appalling referee Mr John Kirby showing him a straight
red card. Ternent’s master stroke had failed with only twenty minutes played. The
first half meandered on with Burnley gaining possession and almost immediately giving it
away again, with Paul Cook, probably playing the worst game of his Clarets career to date
the main culprit. Lenny Johnrose busied himself with a one man demolition attempt of the
Preston team, one awful challenge forcing North End captain Gregan to be stretchered off
with a serious looking injury. Johnrose was lucky to avoid sharing a bath with West.
Even with Preston’s defensive lynchpin off
Burnley failed to show the slightest sign of ever getting back into the game. Preston
broke forward at will and could have increased their lead before half time with a little
more composure in front of goal, as Burnley continued on their sloppy path to destruction.
Mr Kirby busied himself by helping Preston as much as he could taking every opportunity to
book anything that moved in a Claret shirt whilst allowing Preston to get away with a few
nasty challenges. What we must not lose sight of here is that poor as the referee was he
did not lose us the game; this was caused by Ternent’s tinkering with the side and
his continuing belief in playing players out of position. At times players look confused
as to what their role in the team entails and against a side like Preston it was just
suicide.
Davis and Cox were awful, while Little, starved
of the ball, drifted in and out of the game, producing one sublime moment of skill in the
first half, beating a couple of men before crossing low into the box; unfortunately Cooke
and Wright were nowhere. Wright struggled up front with no service and Cooke gave away a
string of free kicks in his duel with the visitors defence.
The second half brought a change as Brass
replaced Cooke and Branch was pushed forward. Brass did little wrong but his introduction
was never going to bring the inspiration required. Paul Cook continued to meander his way
through the game and was finally replaced by Mickey Mellon as Ternent made his last throw
of the dice Paul Smith was also brought on, replacing the disappointing Mullin.
Unsurprisingly, nothing changed as Preston continued to stroll their way through the game
and it was soon game over as Preston broke three against two, and although Crichton made a
splendid save, the ball found Macken and he put away an easy chance to kill the game.
Burnley heads had now dropped and North End had
chances to increase their lead, which they did on 77 minutes Edwards, beating Crichton
with low shot from 25 yards out, and that, my friends, is as far as I can take you on this
miserable day for Clarets.
The three goal rule was applied and off we went;
as Firmo commented, we had been to games where it was easier to get out at the end than it
was today with ten minutes left. It was an exodus, and who can blame them? Apparently
there was a moment of controversy close to full time when Basham feigned injury only to
suddenly recover when the ball was played through. Up he jumped and slotted the ball home.
No surprise that Mr Kirby took no action and failed to even book the player; fortunately
the linesman had his flag up and Basham was denied.
Luton are next up at Turf Moor and it will be
interesting to see just how the Clarets respond to this setback, Preston appear to on
their way up and on this showing deservedly so, whilst the best we can hope for is a play
off.
Today has really brought things back into
perspective and shown us just how far short of a truly good side we are. Things need to
improve and I’ve got every faith in the manager achieving this, but once again the
Clarets failed the acid test.
Team: Crichton,
West, Branch, Davis, Cox, Johnrose, Cook (Mellon 65), Mullin (Smith 65), Little, Cooke
(Brass 46), Wright. Subs not used: Jepson and Robertson.
Links
- More from this game, the away game and this game last season
