Our boys were terrific

Last updated : 04 January 2006 By Tony Scholes

The Clarets dominated the first half and could have had it won during that period only for QPR to pull a goal back on half time and then have the upper hand in the second half and in the end a draw was a fair result.

Both managers will be pleased that the schedule of four games in eight days is over and Ian Holloway spoke about after the game. “I’m pleased with seven points out of twelve because I have never known a series of games like that in all my time involved in football,” he said.

“This has been the craziest bunch of games I’ve ever been involved in and I’m just keeping everything crossed that Marc Nygaard, Matthew Rose and Marc Bircham will now be OK. I’ve given the players two days off and I think they deserve it.”

Onto the game and he was not so pleased with the first half but was with the overall performance as he saw an improvement in the side over the festive period. He added, “I was disappointed with the first half display against Brighton, but since then it has been a great turnaround.

“Today was again very disappointing in the first half. We took too long on the ball and didn’t pass at the right time. Micah Hyde was running the game but once we realised we needed to hit the long diagonal balls to get behind them we had some joy.”

Steve Cotterill was looking for a response from his players following the poor performance against Sheffield Wednesday two days earlier and he was more than happy he got that and felt we should have had the game won during the first half.

“I thought we should have been four up at half time,” he said after seeing the Clarets get a first point in three games. “Their goalkeeper has made three outstanding saves in the first half after we have scored and two of they were special saves.

“If they go in it’s game over and I’ve said to Ade that he shouldn’t put his down as a bad miss because it was a fantastic save after a great ball from Micah and a great cross by Wade Elliott and then good contact from Ade.

“Then, just after that, Jon Harley and Brian Jensen got in a bit of a mix-up and they have both put their hand up and said they mistake and that happens.

“I thought our boys were terrific, particularly in the first half and we showed both sides of us. We played some great football in the first half and we opened them up time and time again, so the game should have been dead and buried by half time.

“In the second half we had to show the other side of us when they brought on their big lads and threw it into our box, but we showed our resilience and won the headers we needed to win. All in all, I think 1-1 was a fair result, but we did enough to have won.

“Some of our passing and movement in the first half was excellent and would have opened up any team we’ve players. Our energy levels were fantastic considering it was our fourth game in a week. It is a measure of how far we’ve come because last season we were 3-0 down here in the first half and it could have been six.”

Attention obviously turned to youngster Chris McCann after he turned in an assured performance besides scoring his second first team game. Cotterill joked, “It was nice of him to play after signing that contract, because he could have been playing a couple of weeks ago if he had signed it.”

But he did have some good words for Chris, adding. “He’s a fantastic prospect, he really is, and we’ve got to make sure that we look after him and nurture him in the right way. It will be interesting to see whereabouts he is if he gets a run of four or five games in the first team and we need to know what level he is at then.

“He was fantastic in the first half, but in the second half there were parts of the game that went by him a little bit. He hasn’t had a game for a while though and him and Kyle Lafferty are both going back to Ireland now for a few days to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.”