Stoke can be a very intimidating place
and the locals not exactly friendly so I was a little concerned how the day might turn
out. I needn’t have worried as everyone we met was friendly and welcoming enough
(although the standard of service from the cabs in general was poor) and mingling with the
Stoke fans as we left the ground there wasn’t a hint of trouble. In fact some of our
travellers discussed the merits of the game quite openly with Stoke fans without fear of
retribution. In all honesty that is what should always happen, so let's not get carried
away, but it highlights how bad what was to happen later really was, as it had nothing to
do with any football match.
Back to the beginning and with 18 London Clarets on the
trip it was a good following hoping for an attacking attitude and a third away win of the
season. Concern regarded Glen Little’s 90 minute appearance in the mid-week reserves
win over Man City, seemingly indicating he wouldn’t be starting after his suspension
had meant him missing the win over Oldham last Saturday. Stan had also played five at the
back, possibly just to counter Oldham’s formation, but it was a worrying step
backwards in terms of our attacking aspirations. Mellon’s substitution by Mullin had
led to some our best play, so he was in danger of at long last losing his starting
position. There is no doubt that he has ability, it’s just that he has too many
anonymous games going forward and adds little defensively to the team. The general feeling
was that we needed a win to stop the pressure building on our home form and also to keep
any chance of automatic promotion going.
A friend was working in Stoke and his boss, being a big
Stoke fan, was taking him to the Jimmy Greenhoff Suite, where for only £40 you got food
and a seat for the game. So I had agreed to meet him in the first pub, where Tom (the
Stoke fan) played down Stoke and said they weren’t very creative and not playing very
well at home. I countered with the fact that Peter Thorne and Kyle Lightbourne always
scored against us. I took a little heart from his lack of optimism and after a long wait
for our cab not to turn up we hijacked another that was dropping someone off and bade them
farewell as they headed for the ground. It turned out to be the best cab of the day as we
arrived before the previous group who had left a good ten minutes earlier.
Cut to three pubs further on and a phone call tells us
that the game is likely to be delayed as there has been a bad accident on the M6 and even
the team had not yet arrived. Now that’s a tough call; stay in the pub assuming the
game will be delayed or go the ground to make sure you don’t miss too much if
it’s not? We opted for the latter, and where twenty minutes earlier eight cabs had
been waiting in the rank there were, as predicted, now none and even a small queue had
formed.
As we arrived at the ground the local radio station was
announcing that the referee had said the game would start at 3pm as scheduled, despite
many Burnley supporters still being stranded on the motorway. Police advice one assumes,
but it meant that only five of the Clarets had appeared on the pitch to warm up. An
interesting sight was seeing one of the young Stoke mascots being carried off the pitch
even before the players appeared! Stoke also employed the smallest ball boy in the world,
as he struggled to lift the ball never mind throw it to anyone. Cute but not very
practical.
The Clarets lined up as feared with five at the back
and no Glen Little. Mullin was in for Mellon who dropped to the bench, Johnrose retained
his place and West and Branch were the two wing-backs. The rain was falling steadily and
the wind was gusting strongly towards the Burnley supporters behind Crichton’s goal.
First half Burnley set out for containment, the ball
spent a lot of time in the air and consequently play was extremely scrappy. Both teams
battling hard but very little fluent play. Cook struggled to get on the ball in midfield
and too much was played in the air to the front two, who received little in the way of
support from midfield or either wing. Stoke’s best chance ended with a header off the
line from Armstrong after Crichton was beaten by a downward header. Burnley’s best
chance came when West slid the ball into Davis on the right-hand side of the box and his
low cross flashed across in front of Payton.
Half-time and nil-nil and I was happy, as was Buzzo,
but the Firmos were livid that we had played with little adventure going forward and
generally poorly, although defensively it had been quite sound with few real alarms. I
predicted we would go for it in the second half with the wind behind, and with Little on
for Johnrose and a switch to 4-4-2, we could go on and win the game.
All through the first half fans were still arriving in
the away end and even as the unchanged teams came out for the second half. Both sets of
fans began to create some atmosphere and it almost seemed like they started to transfer
that onto the pitch where it was getting livelier. Stan made the attacking changes after
the fans had been calling for Little for most of the second half. But it wasn’t the
changes I wanted; Little for West and Smith for the ineffective Branch as straight swaps.
As I’ve always said, I’ll back Stan’s
judgement ahead of mine, but I don’t like seeing Little given a role which involves
defending and tracking back way into his own half. He’s going to lose the ball some
of the time so without the security of a full back behind him it leaves us vulnerable to a
counter attack and doesn’t give free rein to his attacking abilities. It also
doesn’t provide support to take other defenders away from him, which means the
opposition put extra men on him, so if we are going to play that formation Little should
play in the middle of midfield with licence to roam and I would play Paul Weller as the
attacking wing-back.
Back to the game and the subs had hardly settled into
the game when two goals conceded in three minutes looked like the end of our hopes. Davis
made a weak block tackle against Kavanagh on the right-hand corner of our box and the ball
broke for Kavanagh. A low cross and Thorne (as expected) poked it in at full stretch. The
Stoke fans had barely settled down and we were only just responding to the
‘You’re not singing anymore’ when Crichton came and didn’t really
clear the ball with his feet, and as it dropped Smith put the ball up in the air rather
than forwards. A header back in and a weak cross ended with Davis caught in two minds and
ending up heading past Crichton.
Two down and just under twenty minutes to go; it was
Notts County all over again, except that we were playing worse. The game had now
completely opened up and for the neutral at least was providing entertainment as the ball
sped from end to end, although clear cut chances were at a premium. Swan came on for
Johnrose in amongst all this and then Mullin burst between two defenders on the edge of
the box and, after a challenge that the phrase ‘untidy’ was invented for, the
referee, after some deliberation, pointed to the spot. Had it been against us I would not
have been happy but who cares?
It really was Notts County all over again. Problem was
that Payton had missed that penalty so I was a bit worried about this one. Then Kavanagh
and Ward started the gamesmanship, trying to put him off. Kavanagh clearly approached
Payton twice as he prepared to take the penalty before Payton gestured at him to ‘get
lost’. The referee surprisingly just stood and watched. It later transpired that
Kavanagh was willing to bet a tenner that Payton would miss, which Payton accepted before
calmly slotting the ball home as Ward went the wrong way.
Now Ward had been warmly applauded into the goal at the
Burnley end after half time, but here is an example of how quickly a hero can become a
villain. As Andy Cooke tried to retrieve the ball he whacked it towards the scoreboard (no
action from the referee). Then, when the ball bounced back and the ball boy picked it up,
Ward shouted for him to drop it and leave it where it was. So both teams are lined up for
the kick-off, but the ball is still sat off the pitch. Ward then ambles over wasting a few
more seconds and the Clarets fans are going berserk. Every time he touched the ball after
that and even when he left the pitch he was booed off. Unreasonable on our part, as he was
doing his job to the best of his ability by bending the rules? It certainly was, but
during a game why should we be reasonable?
The episode was made sweeter when Swan flicked on a
clearance (the only good thing he did) and Payton ran at the back-pedalling defence before
unleashing a great shot into the bottom right-hand corner as we looked at it. A superb
finish and suddenly the Clarets fans were jumping up and down and the Stoke fans were
rooted to their seats and not singing anymore.
A Stoke corner was driven across the box and flew off a
Burnley defender. The shout for handball went up and the referee, apparently from behind
the player, gave a penalty he couldn’t possibly have seen. Two dodgy penalties, so
that was even. Now Kavanagh, he of the earlier penalty gamesmanship, had to keep his nerve
whilst the silent Payton stood watching. Thinking to myself that I hadn’t seen
Crichton save a penalty, I didn’t fancy his chances. (It was only later that someone
reminded me he had saved one at Wigan.) A stop-start run from Kavanagh; Crichton goes the
right way and saves. Cue Claret celebration which continued to the final whistle. Overall
a point saved, so a mixture of frustration at the way we played and relief at the end of
the comeback.
At this point I was going to go into a diatribe at the
obnoxious ‘Cockney Reds’ that occupied our reserved seats on the way home and
called us every name under the sun, and accused us of virtually every sexual offence and
deviancy going simply because we asked them to move. Most of our group wisely moved into
the first class, whilst I foolishly stayed in some of our other seats. It’s not
something I’ll do again in a hurry, I’d rather pay for an upgrade. Because they
think everybody hates them (especially as they come from London) they think they can call
everybody else. Well I didn’t hate you, until now. As we pointed out, respect is
earned, not given. Avoid them - they aren’t worth it.
