Bank
Holiday Blockbuster Weekender
Igor
reviews the August Bank Holiday weekend, and takes
a look ahead
It's
always nice to see a couple of games in quick succession
to get a feel for the way the team are shaping
up for the season, and having returned from holiday
I took the opportunity to check out the Clarets
at home to Wigan on Saturday and at Priestfield
on Bank Holiday Monday. Having lost two games already
and having failed to score in two hours of open
play against Chesterfield despite winning 34 corners,
not surprisingly there was an air of impending
doom among most supporters present at Turf Moor.
Nonetheless
the Clarets opened up brightly when Robbie Blake
was put through clear on goal in the opening five
minutes. With three attackers against two defenders,
Blake should have at least engineered a scoring
opportunity; instead, he was quickly overhauled
by a defender and opted to square to the other
one,
so Wigan were able to clear the danger. After this
flurry the Wigan defence began to gain ascendancy,
and shots on goal in the first period were few
and far between and for the most part non-existent
despite a fair amount of possession.
Unfortunately,
a number of Burnley players often choose to over-elaborate
on the ball when some quick passing and movement
might prove more productive. Meanwhile,
Wigan scored. A ball squared across the box found
West marking two men, and with some of the crowd
closer to Kennedy than his counterpart Little,
the Wigan player had time to screw in the valve,
pump some air into the ball and still score,
as
he had so much space from ten yards out. Amazingly,
some people thought Jensen should have saved
the shot (which was well struck at virtually point
blank
range) just because it was quite near him. These
people have probably never played in goal.
The
second half saw an immediate turnabout, with the
Clarets mounting a thirty-minute siege of the
Wigan goal. Their midfield and flanks were overrun;
their defence under immense pressure, particularly
from Chadwick and Camara combining well down the
Clarets' left flank, with the Clarets' wobbly defence
given a bit of a breather. The Wigan penalty area
was a sea of bodies, and it would be nice to say
that Burnley bombarded the Wigan goal - but they
didn’t, with the advertising hoardings and
the empty seats in the Jimmy Mac lower tier taking
most of the damage. The one effort that was directed
on target from point-blank range by Weller was
magnificently saved by Filan. It was perhaps typical
of the Clarets' luck that he not only saved the
shot but diverted the ball over the bar out of
harm’s way. The next shots on target came
after Wigan had scored direct from a corner, with
the lively Ellington poking in unattended from
about four yards out in the middle of the goal.
Really, this should not happen.
Nevertheless,
the Clarets kept plugging away. Camara drew
a save, and Chaplow hit the bar from a rebound
off a defender.
If
the Clarets had taken half the opportunities presented
to them, they would have won this game comfortably
by three or four clear goals, but their finishing
was hasty and edgy. By giving away two soft goals
at the back, allowing the Wigan side to settle
in midfield and with the finishing abysmal, Burnley
looked second best to an industrious Wigan side
in all departments. As a team, the Clarets looked
incoherent, and after the first goal went in, the
despondency was visible as the “here we
go again” syndrome took hold. IMHO Stan was
blameless, as they came out in the second half
fired up, and he did not tell them to place all
their
shots wide of the goal. One might question the
wisdom of fielding the crossing power of Little,
Chadwick and Camara and then playing a midget forward
line, but when Taylor is injured who else have
we got? Anyway it took Stan to point it out to
them at half time that Taylor was not there.
On
the positive side, Burnley dominated for most of
the second half, created enough chances to win
three or four games, and in fairness to the players,
despite missing several easy chances they kept
putting themselves forward to have another go.
Other positives were the performances of Chadwick
in particular, as well as Mo Camara, plus a solid
start from Daisy May. Chaplow never lets anyone
down. Despite all the forewarnings about how useless
he was, Jensen in goal looked sound enough to me.
So all of Stan’s new boys on display showed
up well.
Hoping
down in Kent
I
was offered many commiserations by my locally-based
comrades when I informed them that I had already
purchased my ticket for Gillingham. However,
as expectations were low, anything other than
a good thrashing at the hands of Gillingham would
seem like a worthwhile outing. Long pre-match
discussions took place over the wisdom of playing
Branch at
the back, etc, and the gloom was deepened by
the news that Taylor had been sold to Forest, which
at the time was not strictly true.
As
against Wigan, the Clarets started brightly, with
the first clear-cut chance arriving when a superb
ball behind the Wigan defence put Little through
- but he tried to curl it with his right instead
of driving, and it went wide. Next came a flurry
from Gillingham, and they quickly demonstrated
why they had scored only one goal this season.
Playing
only one up front (Ian Moore), with Chadwick,
Little and Blake joining him when necessary, the
Clarets were beginning to look more comfortable
going forward. May got in a powerful header from
a corner, and the Clarets were beginning to turn
the screw. So,
when Moore robbed Hope and slotted in at the near
post with an excellent finish, it
was a just reward for some excellent football.
However,
what happened next must be almost a first in the
Ternent dynasty, when Burnley scored
another
straight after scoring the first. It was a
cracking goal, with the Gillingham defenders sucked
into
and bewildered by the Bermuda triangles created
by Blake, Little and Chadwick. The latter cut
back for the unmarked West - of all people,
who had bounded forward deep into the opposition
penalty box - to fire home into the far corner
with his left foot.
How
good could it get? At half time, 2–0 up
away from home, the sun was shining, the sky was
blue, and the cloud formations were rather good
as well. At a venue where it was considered a good
day's work by previous Clarets sides to scrape
a draw, 2–0 up and with a chance to top
up the tan, Priestfield briefly turned into the
Copacabana.
A glass of Pimms would have been nice, with some
bits of exotic foliage - but let's not get greedy,
coffee at 60p a cup was as Brazilian as it could
get off the field.
The
second half started with the Clarets defending
our goal, so we had chance to have a good close
look at our previously ropey and much maligned
suspect defence, plus the giant Jensen in goal.
Gillingham pressed forward, but the Clarets got
bodies in the way, tackles and headers in, and
Big Brian tidied up the rest. With about fifteen
minutes to go, Brian was really tested by a fierce
short
range drive from a Gills player, to which he responded
magnificently by getting down low to his left and
offering a strong arm to dig the ball out. If that
had gone in, the Gills might have rallied and
forced an equaliser.
Really,
this broke their hearts, and with Stan now subbing
players, Alan Moore on for
the injured Ian, the closing stages were approaching.
However, the Clarets made sure when a long but
well-directed clearance by Alan Moore found
Glen, who released Blake. Robbie went on to neatly
sidestep the chasing defender and rifle home.
Another brilliant move involving Moore resulted
in a
double
save, and there was only going to be one side
likely to score again - and it wasn’t Gillingham.
In
the end the Clarets ran out comprehensive winners,
superior in every single department of the pitch
from front to back. Even the much maligned Alan
Moore pitched in and did his bit, initiating the
attack for the third and helping to keep the Gills
on the back foot. It was a great team effort, and
every player turned in an accomplished performance.
Three
clear goals is a rare wide victory margin in the
Ternent era, and it was richly deserved - and
frankly could have been wider. The opposition
weren’t
much cop, but rather importantly the Clarets
negated their rather predictable high-ball-to-the-back-post
tactic, allowing the “Beast” to
keep his first clean sheet. Slowly, the Beast
is beginning to take charge of his box and chastise
his defenders - most notably when Camara needlessly
conceded a free kick on the touchline in the
second
half, allowing the Gills to play their back post
trick. “Stupid, Stupid, Stupid,” barked
the Beast, giving a hint of a great Dane rather
than the poodle some have made him out to be.
Furthermore,
May is beginning to look the part, directing events
at the back, and he may well prove to be one of
Stan’s key signings. Burnley have been lacking
a degree of savvy in the back line since the departure
of Mitchell Thomas, and with Branchy involved in
most of the action, May appears to calmly survey
events and then pop up with a timely intervention.
His back post header also gave a hint that he might
replace Davis as the key man at corners in the
opposition penalty box.
The
midfield worked their socks off, with Weller and
Grant holding the middle
section and Blake holding the ball up in
the opposition half bringing others into play.
Chadwick
was less
dazzling today, as he is probably not used to
two games in succession, and travelling down on
the
bus on the same day is probably about as alien
at Old Trafford as one of the players answering
back to Fergie, but the boy has magic feet and
they are connected up to his brain, which appears
to have been programmed correctly.
Up
front, Ian Moore looked good in his lone ranger
role, almost Owenesque at times, and maybe he is
the type of guy who finds that another forward
gets in the way, as Lineker once stated. He looked
very sharp and full of goals, if he can remain
available for selection.
All
of a sudden the picture looks much brighter, but
there is still much to do. First of all, the
Clarets have to start winning at home, and to do
this Stan
needs to stop the opposition from scoring. Maybe
five across the middle is the way forward, even
at home, and is not as negative as it sounds if
the Gillingham performance is anything to go by.
The fans have to be won back over, and they could
make a start by replicating the willingness to
get forward and finish teams off once they have
scored, instead of sitting back as they have done
throughout Stan’s reign.
Looking
up and down this Division there are not a lot
of other brilliant
sides in it, and if they play as well in future
they can beat most sides in it. In Luke Chadwick
we have probably got one of the most skilful,
entertaining and effective players in the Division,
a real match-winner and potential crowd-puller,
as he is worth the admission money just to watch
his runs and
skill with the ball at his feet.
The
problems will start when the bookings mount up.
May has two already, and, combined with injuries,
this may prove to be more onerous than in the past.
In these times the crowd needs to be supportive
to the players that come in, especially if they
are young players. Nevertheless, the boys looked
as good as at any time over the recent Ternent
regnum, so we have every reason to feel optimistic
of being able to hold our own in this Division
at the very minimum, and even make an impact at
some point, providing we can consistently put out
a reasonably strong team.
Igor Wowk
August 2003
