Victory message from Sweden!
A TV review of Coventry's demise
Sweden-based Claret Gary Watson
viewed Saturday's magnificent win
against Coventry from afar.
You know you're a true supporter of a football team when you get nervous even when there's only two minutes left and your team are two up facing a victory that's as secure as a Taliban chastity belt. With me, this only happens when I watch England (I was even panicking at 5-1 up against the Germans!) and my beloved Burnley. I wonder if true Man Utd fans have the same problem. Do they think their team is going to throw it away by conceding two goals in extra time? Perhaps they do, or perhaps the phenomenon only affects Clarets fans. Maybe. When Arthur's woefully inadequate header was intercepted deep into injury time, the camera fell on the Burnley bench and the commentator remarked: they look a bit nervous!
I watched this match on Swedish TV. My adopted country's terrestrial channels, as in Britain, have long since been sidelined from screening Premiership football, so they have 'resorted' to broadcasting either First Division or Scottish Premiership. Of course, there is more often than not some Swedish interest. Celtic, for obvious reasons, feature prominently, and of course Coventry, who not only have a Swedish coach, but also a Swedish goalkeeper. Hedman, by the way, may give the impression of being a bit of a pansy, but his wife is of incontestably 'butcher's dog' material. Indeed, Magnus would do well to bring his lady along to the games to try and dislodge the concentration of the opposition, which in this case was rock-steady.
The number of reports I've read throughout the season which at some point have declared the opposition to be a poor team! Coventry came into this match admittedly on the back of their first defeat under new manager Roland Nilsson, they were under strength, especially with 5 million Pound man Lee Hughes out through injury, but still, they had taken 27 out of a possible 36 points. I suppose people reading this need not be reminded that nowadays Burnley make these teams look bad. So bad, in fact, that NTG spent most of the second half jogging up and down to keep warm. I don't believe I saw them have a shot on goal in 90 minutes of football. Our dominance was total.
I was surprised, I must say. Having been out for a run in the semi-darkness of the Stockholm woods (one disadvantage of living here is that it goes dark almost as soon as it gets light at this time of the year!), I came home to find my kids hogging the main TV, which is the only one (of two) that I can watch the cable channel on. Oh dear! I'll miss the North London derby, what a shame, I wonder which game is on the terrestrial channel… Ninety minutes later, I was marvelling at what was indeed an impressive Burnley performance. For anyone who hasn't seen them for a bit, hey, read my lips, we're good, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
What bugged me most, though, was the Swedish commentator's and studio guests' refusal to give us credit for this. It was all: Coventry are no good; 'Rolle' (Roland Nilsson - a national hero due to his devoted service to the Swedish national team at right back) has a lot of work to do with this team; they (Coventry) haven't enough material to work with; etc., etc. No mention of the fact that we played them off the park, ran our socks off for each other and scored two good goals, one of which was a hoodwink and a half of a goal.
So, did any of the Clarets stand out? Well, first and foremost this was a team effort; whenever a Burnley player had the ball, there was another one to pass to. Our 'material' isn't that good, I suppose, but our coach somehow or other gets them to play out of their skin. Having said that, we do have Glen, of course, our resident Harry Potter, full of wizardry and trickery, ably abetted by assistant warlocks Weller and West down the right. We have hard grafters Grant and Ball, the latter of whom came on in extra time at the end of the first half for the groggy Briscoe, who received an early knock. I think Stan was wasting a bit of time here, trying to get to the interval without conceding a goal. We have Ian Moore, who never stops running at and worrying defences, and Gareth, who has now got four in four, this one preceded admittedly by a bit of a Chris Bonnington impression on the shoulders of Gary Breen. At the back, NTG, despite having little to do, did what he had to, and even caught the ball a fair few times instead of punching it, causing the Swedish commentator to remark on his aerial dominance in the box, and in front of him we have the strikingly similar Cox and Arthur, who with their sheer physique must put the wind up most attackers, and are indeed threatening to keep The Legend out of the team. And finally, we have Paul Cook, whose natural left foot Sven-Göran would die for if it were on the left leg of a younger, slightly quicker and more versatile midfielder. His free-kick to set up Glen for the second goal was pure genius. This was no practised set piece; this was sheer footballing intelligence: an on-the-spot decision which not only gave Burnley valuable breathing space at two-up, but left everyone, including Glen Little, dumbstruck. I was glad for once that Steve was not playing. His free-kicks have been abominable of late.
So, in all this praise, any negative points? Well, we need to be a bit more decisive and goal-hungry up front. I Moore's confidence in front of goal is rock-bottom; he could have scored three and should have bagged one immediately after Taylor's opener in the 10th minute. His tentativeness was to blame again near the end when it was three against two approaching the Coventry box, but Ian held on to it far too long, went sideways instead of goalwards and only managed to feed Westy with a bit of an iffy ball. Still, his running and harassing alone makes him worth his place in the team. Defensively, our main problem seems to be closing down the opposition midfield as they approach our penalty area. Towards the end of this game, when Coventry eventually managed to string the odd pass together, there were two or three instances when the midfield and defence backed off too much, allowing their best player, substitute Fowler minus plaster on nose, to waltz down the middle like he was driving a bus down Brunshaw Road on a Sunday afternoon.
On a final negative note, we have picked up more bookings than any other team in the league. Having had the luxury of being able to select the same team four times running, Taylor's name going in the book means he's out for our match at Crystal Palace because this was his fifth booking - a silly one, too, evidently arguing with the referee, who was keen to impress us with his knowledge of the rules by repeatedly moving free kicks ten yards further up the field for dissent. Still, who's complaining! If he hadn't, we would never have witnessed that second goal.
Gary Watson
November 2001
The match report
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