Before too long tackling will go the way of the dinosaurs

Last updated : 03 October 2010 By Tony Scholes
Jackett confirmed after the match that his thoughts were that referee Keith Stroud had got the decision absolutely right. "He's mistimed it," said Jackett, "And another one that looked bad was one on Tony Craig, because he's got two big holes in his shin and has needed stitches.

"Quite often when a defender is clearing the ball up the line like that and somebody comes late and catches him, that can be red. Tony's lucky; that one worried me and I'm pleased he was able to get up."

He was impressed with the strength of our squad and admitted that it showed that he needed to bring in additional resources to his own squad. "When you see the two centre-halves Burnley had at the start and that both of them had to come off within 13 minutes, the fact that players of the size and experience of Duff and Cort could come on shows how strong a squad they've got," he added.

"Without those substitutions they wouldn't have been able to withstand our pressure in the second half. We have to learn from that and I think we should be able to have that type of competition and cover within our own particular budget.

"We need to strengthen and we need to really improve the competition in our squad. Emergency loans are open to us, or we can look forward and do something constructive at Christmas, it won't be a knee jerk reaction."

He saw his side fail to beat our ten men and said: "Perhaps it was a lost opportunity today. There's a considerable amount of frustration because we had the chances to win the game, particularly in the second half.

"We built up momentum and pressure against ten men, but the only criticism I've got of my players is their finishing. We had numerous chances, plus the woodwork came to their rescue twice and Brian Jensen made an exceptional save from Alan Dunne in the first half. We have to look at that because we could've finished Burnley off today.

"Neil Harris had three chances, and he's got a knack of finding the ball in the box and getting opportunities. He's been in three very good situations but unfortunately it just wasn't his day.

"Danny Schofield was unlucky to hit the bar, Paul Robinson unlucky to hit the post and Dunne's had a couple of chances go just over.

"We've got to put one of those in, there wasn't a lot else wrong although their goal was a soft goal from our point of view.

"Alan [Dunne] doesn't lose many in the air, so Rodriguez has done very well to get up and above a player who is a good header of the ball as him. David [Forde] had no chance, that's the type of quality you've got at this level, and you can't stop absolutely everything."

Burnley boss Brian Laws is going to speak to referee Keith Stroud before making a decision on whether to appeal the red card shown to Clarke Carlisle.

"You cannot legislate for losing your two centre backs inside the opening ten minutes or so and I would like to have had a game 11 v 11 because we fancied our chances. Your plans go right out of the window with the sending off and I am not going to be negative about the referee, I'll just say he was different.

"Before too long tackling will go the way of the dinosaurs and it's incredible. Clarke didn't get the player or the ball and it was out wide. There is no intent and the player has seen the challenge coming and jumped over it.

"Yellow card, maybe? Certainly not a red though and now there is a decision to be made on whether we appeal the red card. I have asked the referee to have a look at it again and if he looks at it and gives us an indication that it is harsh, it might give us a case.

"I would hope he would be good enough to do that because if we appeal and it's deemed frivolous, we are looking at four games."

To make matters worse, Andre Bikey had already picked up an injury before the red card and just a few minutes later he was forced off. "Andre got a shove in the back and there is a possibility of a broken rib," Laws admitted.

"That's something we are going to have a look at over the next 24 hours when he has an x-ray. He is certainly in a lot of pain, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. But it shows the strength of our squad when we had two centre-halves in Leon and Michael who have gone in and done a sterling job.

"They were out on their feet at the end and that was down to match tempo and not playing for a while. But the resilience of the whole team has shone through and it's exactly what we will need coming up against teams like this.

"You can't disguise that they are a physical side and it's an intimidating place to come, so the fact we have battled with them under extreme circumstances is testament to our attitude."