I'm a little bit more professional than that I hope

Last updated : 28 February 2003 By Tony Scholes

Tigana, a manager clearly under pressure, couldn’t seem to grasp that his side had been outplayed by the Clarets and was producing excuse after excuse blaming the Clarets for over aggressive tactics.

"In the first 20 minutes Burnley tried to break Boa Morte," said Tigana after the match. "They wanted to stop him and it was very easy to see.

"At half-time I explained to the referee he had to respect my players, especially Boa Morte, and he said yes - then after the break the first bad challenge is a red card."

Tigana then went on to say, "I am not Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson. I do not have the power behind me and it is very difficult. They have to respect me and they have to respect Fulham.

"We also played with 10 against 11 on Monday and the recovery wasn't very good. Now we have a big game against Sunderland on Saturday. But we will keep fighting."

Needless to say Stan was a happy man after reaching the 6th round of the FA Cup for the first time as either player or manager.

"We go the first goal which was vitally important to us but in the end it was comfortable and we would never have forecasted that before the game.

"The endeavour and commitment my players showed was fantastic but there is a little more to it than that. In every department we came out on top and that’s the reason we won the game.

"The players worked their socks off and they did us proud on a tricky pitch but we were prepared for it and it worked for us tonight."

Stan did reply to the comments from Tigana and said, "Jean has his own views on things and so do I. I don’t talk about other teams though, I’m a little bit more professional than that I hope. But if being competitive is wrong then we are wrong."

Fulham’s Sean Davis, sent off for a reckless challenge on Tony Grant had some harsh words for the Burnley players but did admit that we deserved our win.

"I went for the ball and I admit it was a mis-timed tackle but I don't think that I should have got anything more than a yellow card," said Fulham’s midfielder. "The reaction from the Burnley players provoked the referee into making the decision - they all started running around me ranting and raving which I thought was a bit out of order because it was only a mistimed tackle. I never intended to hurt anyone.

"But Burnley played well. If they played like that every week in the First Division they'd be top of the table. I think they're cheating themselves with their current league position.

"They were the better team on the night, I can't disagree with that. They came to our place where we should have finished them off. They battled hard on Wednesday and scored the three vital goals, so we've got no complaints. It was very disappointing to play so well in recent weeks then go out of the Cup in that fashion."

"The referee's got to make the right decisions though," added Sean. "I thought they kicked lumps out of Boa. He booked one of their players for diving but gave nothing for some of the tackles, and then when Legwinski made one tackle he got booked straight away.

"There was a lot of disappointment in the changing room and I want to apologise to the fans who came up to see the match it was a very bad performance."

Tigana’s men Turfed out in shame

Alan Nixon (Daily Mirror)

Moore glory for Clarets

JEAN TIGANA will be glad to see the back of the famous English giant-killers when he goes back across the Channel.

It's long been a question of when and not if Tigana leaves the club but now he is heading home to France in shame.

Burnley's demolition of ten-man Fulham in this FA Cup replay at Turf Moor last night was no fluke because in reality it could have been more and they now face Watford in the quarter-finals.

But for Fulham's Premiership all-stars, already humiliated in the Worthington Cup this season by Wigan, it was nothing short of a disaster, with Sean Davis getting a red card for serious foul play.

Battling Burnley may lack the cash and the class of their aristocratic rivals - but this was a night for their kind of football and their kind of attitude.

From the off Stan Ternent's troops had their bayonets fixed and Fulham did not like the cold steel as they slumped towards their second cup defeat by a lesser light in Lancashire.

Tigana did not help his cause by putting out a team with just one forward and the excuse of fatigue should not really be a factor either in their abject display. The Frenchman's exit from Craven Cottage cannot be far away and on this form he won't be missed. The whole club also has to review their approach to important signings. This was a painful lesson in home truths as a modest, in fact hard-up, outfit out-played and out-fought them in so many departments.

Ian Moore, booked for diving after just three minutes for an awful attempt to con a penalty, should have scored soon after in a storming start. Alan Moore ran through the Fulham midfield unchallenged and slipped a pass to his namesake, who got away from John Harley but was then superbly tackled by the left-back.

Big Gareth Taylor gave Fulham a scare with a towering leap as the Londoner's found the aerial threat hard to cope with.

There was more passion in the home ranks with boss Ternent lectured for complaining about some of the decisions and the home crowd typically whipped up.

Luis Boa Morte provided the few flashes of Fulham quality but his pace and skills found little support from a side that was ill at ease in the surroundings. Lone striker Louis Saha tested Marlon Beresford with a low shot but they were often hassled and hustled out of their stride.

Burnley's opener was no surprise when it arrived in the 27th minute with Fulham's defence shaky and unconvincing.

Tony Grant's cross was flicked on by Lee Briscoe and Taylor was all alone in the middle to head home his 12th goal of the season.

Steed Malbranque immediately made Beresford save a stinging shot and Davis crashed a volley wide as Fulham tried to avoid humiliation. Fulham suffered a new blow when Boa Morte was injured chasing a lost cause, crashing into the adverts behind the goal.

Tigana's men took an even more telling knock while the Portuguese forward was off as Burnley went two up and almost out of sight. Dean West chipped a ball over some dreaming defender and Ian Moore reacted first before lobbing the exposed Taylor for an exquisite second.

Davis received the red card in the 49th minute.

Just three minutes later Burnley defender Drissa Diallo completed the rout with a powerful header.

Tigana incensed as motivated Burnley end his cup odyssey

Peter Lansley (The Times)

THE Nationwide League first division will be represented in the semi-finals of the FA Cup this season after Burnley overpowered Fulham to earn themselves a trip to Watford on Sunday week and a place in the last eight of the competition for the first time since 1983. The Barclaycard Premiership club, who lost away to Wigan Athletic in the Worthington Cup earlier this season, were no match for Stan Ternent’s eager team, even before Sean Davis became Fulham’s second player in 48 hours to be shown the red card.

Gareth Taylor and Ian Moore scored in the first period as Burnley added to the pressure weighing down on Jean Tigana, the Fulham manager, and the humbling of last season’s Cup semi-finalists was complete as Drissa Diallo, the Guinea defender, scored a third goal. To add to the ignominy, Tigana unleashed a verbal tirade at the referee for allegedly failing to protect his players.

Burnley have been beaten only once in their past 12 matches and with the television and prize revenue from last night’s fifth-round replay added to the bounty coming their way for the tie at Vicarage Road, Ternent labelled the win "a £750,000 football match". The Burnley manager added: "I might even get £5,000 to buy a player now.

"I thought we were superior in every part of the field," he said. "The players worked their socks off and deserved what they got."

This was Fulham’s twentieth cup game of a long, long season. Whether Burnley’s committed approach or Fulham’s leg-weariness could be deemed a reasonable excuse for the visiting team’s collapse is a moot point. Without an away win in four months, the London team have proved lightweight on their travels, whatever their fixture card.

Tigana made only three changes from the starting line-up that drew 1-1 away to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday evening but then criticised the television scheduling that the Premier League had confirmed could have been altered. "Two games in three days is very difficult," he said. "I’m not (Arsène) Wenger or Alex Ferguson, I don’t have that power behind me and now I have lost two players in these two matches."

While Maik Taylor’s dismissal on Monday night had received widespread sympathy, Davis can have no complaints. In the latest England squad for his finesse rather than his fighting qualities, the midfield player scythed into Tony Grant shortly after half-time. "It is sad because that was his first tackle," Tigana said. "The referee did not even see it; it was the linesman’s decision. I was very angry at half-time and I said to the referee: ‘You have to protect my players.’ In the first 20 minutes, they wanted to break (Luis) Boa Morte. If that is football, you can accept that; at my level, that is not possible."

Ternent attempted not to rise to the bait. "I don’t talk about other teams," he said. "I’m a little bit more professional than that, I hope. If being competitive is wrong, then we’re wrong."

Gareth Taylor, who turned 30 on Tuesday, scored the opening goal in the 27th minute. When Ian Moore crossed from the right flank, Lee Briscoe got in front of Andy Melville to confuse the defence and Taylor nodded in his twelfth goal of the season.

Fulham, as ever, played some admirable passing football in the first half. Early on, they could have taken the lead, but three players managed to avoid Steed Malbranque’s marvellous free kick.

Ian Moore, playing almost as an old-fashioned inside right, scored in the 35th minute when accelerating on to Dean West’s pass and lifting the ball over the Fulham goalkeeper. After Grant flighted the corner, in the 52nd minute, from which Diallo, the central defender, headed home his first goal for the club since joining from Mechelen last month, Turf Moor erupted.

Fulham fold in front of Ternent’s finest Clarets

Dominic Fifield (The Guardian)

It may have been a long time coming but those supporters in claret and blue, delirious in riotous victory, will hardly care. Their Burnley team have an FA Cup quarter-final to relish.

The First Division side had waited 20 years to achieve such a feat, but last night urgency swept their team beyond Premiership opponents to a match at Watford in the last eight.

Fulham, counting the cost of a second match in 48 hours and thoroughly outplayed, were left with nothing more than aching limbs and the £265,000 fee for a televised game.

This was the visitors' 20th cup tie of a season elongated by last summer's participation in the Intertoto Cup. Out of Europe and uncomfortably placed in the Premiership, they had precious little to show for their exertions even before last night's trip to Lancashire. This morning they have nothing at all.

Fulham's was the breezier start but, once Luis Boa Morte's cross had eluded Louis Saha and Steed Malbranque's free-kick bypassed the clutter in the six-yard box, they faded.

With one or other of the Moores threatening down the flanks and Gareth Taylor's rugged presence up front unsettling the defence, Burnley simply took control.

Tony Grant slid a delicious pass for Dean West beyond Jon Harley, and the full-back's cross was half-cleared back to the former Everton midfielder. With Fulham defenders panicked by the initial attack, Grant's follow-up centre bounced over Lee Briscoe for Taylor, unmarked and eager, to thump a header beyond the exposed Maik Taylor.

Malbranque and Sean Davis briefly threatened to bring parity, although Fulham's defensive poise had long since evaporated. West's chipped pass duly sent Ian Moore scurrying beyond Harley and Martin Djetou before he lifted the second over the advancing goalkeeper.

Ian Cox, spinning in the goalmouth, might have added a third before the interval, and any hopes the Londoners had of mounting an unlikely revival were wrecked within four minutes of the restart.

Davis, his frustration spitefully clear, crunched into Grant and was promptly dismissed; with him went any dignity Fulham might have salvaged from this shambles.

The visitors were still desperately reorganising when a sufficiently recovered Grant floated a corner into the area and Drissa Diallo, leaping unchallenged, flicked his first goal for the club delicately over Taylor.

Both Alan Moore, a livewire until replaced late on, and the unrelated Ian might have added a fourth, reflecting the embarrassing gulf between the two sides, but it mattered little.

With 10-man Fulham clueless and shapeless, a delighted Burnley manager Stan Ternent was waving to the home support before the end. The smattering of visiting supporters, huddled shivering and dejected, must have wondered why they had bothered.

Fulham flop as fatigue sets in

William Johnson (Daily Telegraph)

Burnley secured their first FA Cup quarter-final for 20 years with unexpected ease last night at the expense of a woeful Fulham side who, even allowing for their Premiership exertions against Tottenham 48 hours earlier, never looked like confirming their superior status.

With a relatively undemanding trip to Watford awaiting the winners of this replay, Burnley clearly wanted it more and were rarely troubled after striking twice in quick succession through Gareth Taylor and Ian Moore.

A headed third by French central defender Drissa Diallo completed a night of celebration at Turf Moor and effectively ended a long and exhausting season for the Londoners.

Burnley, whose other objective this season is to climb from the middle of the First Division into a play-off position, sensed that this was a good time to be meeting a Fulham team who were complaining of fatigue even before they made the journey from London . . . and so it proved.

Jean Tigana's men, engaged in their 20th cup fixture of a campaign which was launched last July in the InterToto, performed abjectly as their hosts took control of the tie with two goals in seven first-half minutes.

Taylor helped himself to a comfortable 12th of the season by heading past his namesake Maik, Fulham's Northern Ireland goalkeeper, after a Tony Grant cross from the right had eluded several players of both teams.

If the Turf Moor crowd were delighted by that welcome breakthrough, they were sent into raptures as Moore punished uncertainty in the Fulham rearguard to add the second.

Dean West's ball down the middle should have been cut out but nobody did and Taylor was too slow off his line to prevent the Burnley winger from pouncing and flicking the ball past him.

Burnley were good value for that interval lead but it required Marlon Beresford's excellent save from Steed Malbranque to keep it intact and home supporters' hearts missed a collective beat when a Sean Davis volley skimmed an upright.

Fulham's faint hopes of salvaging something from the debacle were extinguished three minutes into the second half when Davis was sent off for recklessly hacking down Grant from behind - a two-footed lunge which incensed the other Burnley players.

Nine times out of 10, Davis would have escaped with a yellow card but referee Phil Dowd, after consultations with his assistant, chose red for the disbelieving former England Under-21 captain.

Fulham's anger at that decision was endorsed four minutes later when Grant, showing no ill effects from the incident, launched a right-wing corner from which Diallo inflicted the coup de grace on his cluster of French compatriots.

Vintage Clarets sink 10-man Fulham

Phil Shaw (Independent)

At least one of the FA Cup semi-finalists will come from the First Division. Burnley booked a sixth-round date at Watford with a vibrant, aggressive display against a Fulham side that last won at Turf Moor in 1951. On the evidence of this supine display, they may have to wait a further half-century for another.

Two goals in nine minutes by Gareth Taylor and Ian Moore -- the first having a hint of offside, the second superbly executed -- put the Nationwide League team in command before half-time.

In another burst of activity after the break, Fulham's England squad player Sean Davis was sent off and Drissa Diallo added to Burnley's haul.

Jean Tigana, the Fulham manager, might have been expected to criticise the Premiership team's disappointing showing. Instead he turned his wrath on Burnley for what he saw as intimidatory challenges, accusing them of seeking to "break" Luis Boa Morte.

He also condemned the referee, Phil Dowd, for failing to "protect" his players and for making Davis the second Fulham player to be dismissed in the space of two days.

Tigana, whose week started with a more dubious red card at Tottenham for his goalkeeper, Maik Taylor, had to be restrained from confronting Mr Dowd at half-time. "I never talk about referees. I'm not Wenger or Ferguson," he said afterwards, edging towards a conspiracy theory as he added: "I don't have the power behind me."

The truth was less sinister. Boa Morte was on the receiving end of some meaty tackles yet he sustained the injury which forced his substitution by colliding with an advertising hoarding.

And the lunge which led to the red card for Davis was late and reckless, and could have broken Tony Grant's ankle.

The Burnley manager, Stan Ternent, said pointedly: "I don't talk about other teams -- I'd hope I'm a bit more professional than that. But if being competitive is wrong, then we are wrong. I thought we were superior in every department."

The first goal, after 27 minutes, followed a teasing cross by Grant. Lee Briscoe distracted the defence with a near-post run, enabling Gareth Taylor to dart in and head his 12th goal of the season.

The second stemmed from a delightful chipped pass by Dean West, who made the most of the fact that Boa Morte was off having treatment. The full-back sent Ian Moore clear and he deftly angled his 10th of the season over Maik Taylor.

Davis' 47th-minute folly was compounded five minutes later when Diallo, a 30-year-old centre-back recruited from Belgian football, rose unchallenged to head in a corner by the ubiquitous Grant.