We'd get a goal and then we'd go and throw one in

Last updated : 04 April 2004 By Tony Scholes

Norwich looked anything but league leaders during the first forty-five minutes and Nigel Worthington saw his side fall behind three times.

"We prepared well before the game, everything was first class. We flew up and all the training was spot on. Yet in the first half we didn’t defend as we can do. There was a lack of communication on the third goal and we handed Burnley opportunities on a plate.

"We didn’t surrender though and bounced back straight away. At half time we tried to settle things down, I got a few points across and we went out and put in a clean sheet in the second half.

"We bounced back well and showed commitment, Darren Huckerby ran at them and caused trouble and Mathias Svensson should just what a good player he is.

I had to take Paul McVeigh off but Kevin Cooper came on, did well and I am delighted with that."

Happy enough with the way his side came back he did dare to discuss the promotion issue that surely they have now won.

"There’s seven games to go. We must pick up points and show what we are made of. We believe we can do it and the players need to show this too."

As Stan saw his mate Worthington slip away with all three points he was far from pleased yet again with our defending.

"I’m not happy," he said. "We were in front three times and still lost the match. We played very well in the first half but we in the second half we were crap."

Having said that he certainly wasn’t happy with some aspects of the first half, the defending.

"We gifted them their goals, they didn’t get a proper goal or have to do anything to score and they have got five goals. if the goalkeeper was the hero last week, he was the villain this week because he lost us four goals.

"We took the lead three times and all the wind was knocked from our sails. We’d get a goal and then we’d go and throw one in and let them back into it."

Looking at the situation at the bottom of the league he added, "We still need three more wins from seven and we’ll get them, I’m sure of that. We are well capable of that but we do have to defend better than we did today"

Burnley floored by City slickers
Ron Clarke (Sunday Times)

FOR the neutral observer this was an eight-goal thriller. For the participants, with both relegation and promotion at stake, it was a nerve-racking but pulsating afternoon.

Before the game Burnley manager Stan Ternent claimed his side needed at least three wins to be absolutely sure of avoiding the dreaded drop.

As far as hurdles go, this one against table-toppers Norwich was probably their Bechers Brook. But having appeared to clear it, they then managed to fall at the last fence. This was a game where Burnley took the lead no less than three times and went in at the break one goal to the good from the five scored.

The spree started after only seven minutes with Burnley’s Neil Wood crashing home a free kick from just outside the penalty area. David May then scrambled home Robbie Blake’s corner at the far post. In between Norwich equalised, with Swedish international Mathias Svensson squeezing a shot through the legs of May and out of reach of Brian Jensen in the Burnley goal. Then within a minute of conceding their second, Darren Huckerby capitalised on a mix-up between Jensen and Graham Branch to slide the ball home. Burnley did reach half-time with a one-goal lead courtesy of Blake’s long-range drive.

A deluge of first-half goals is normally followed by a dull drought in the second. But the cascade continued after the restart to transform the outcome. The home team were caught napping as a harmless Huckerby free kick sailed over a static defence to give Leon McKenzie a free header and the easiest of equalisers.

If that was clumsy then at least the goal that gave the visitors the lead on 62 minutes was pure class. Huckerby, a constant threat, picked out left-back Adam Drury and his fine run ended in a pinpoint cross for Svensson to head home from close range for his second.

After that Burnley never really threatened against a composed Norwich side who were content to sit back and claim the points. The nearest they came was a shot from substitute Lee Chadwick from the 18-yard line which sailed over the bar. With it went any hopes of his team salvaging anything from the game.

There was still time right at the end for Huckerby to get his second when he nipped in behind the defence to head the ball into the net and seal a remarkable comeback victory.

Afterwards the Burnley manager said: "I am not a happy man. We played well in the first half, and crap in the second. That was unacceptable. We still have to get three wins out of seven and we will." Delighted Norwich manager Nigel Worthington said: "Good character, great second-half performance and absolutely magnificent three points."

Huckerby slays dozy defence
Jon Culley (Independent on Sunday)

The 2,500 Norwich City supporters who braved a typically rain swept Turf Moor afternoon would have been quite happy to win by a scruffy own goal in return for the three-point lead they now enjoy in the Nationwide First Division. Instead, they were treated to a seesawing spectacle in which relegation-threatened Burnley led three times before Norwich's extra quality at last triumphed.

Neil Wood, David May and Robbie Blake all underlined Burnley's attacking strengths during a five-goal first half, after which the final outcome left their manager, Stan Ternent, incredulous and unwilling to spare anyone's feelings, not least his goalkeeper, Brian Jensen. "When you score three times at home you usually expect to win, but in the second half we were crap," he said. "Norwich haven't had to make one goal themselves because we've given them away, and Brian was responsible for four of them."

Naturally, Ternent's Norwich counterpart, Nigel Worthington, was rather happier. "It was disappointing to concede three goals as sloppily as we did," he said. "But to keep coming back from a goal behind and then go on to win the game showed a lot of character."

The defensive comedy began with a Wood free-kick finding its way through a badly organised wall and past a static Robert Green, after which Mathias Svensson scored the first of his two goals off May's leg, with Jensen stranded. May made amends, sliding home Blake's corner, but within 60 seconds Darren Huckerby had sped past three Burnley defenders and a dithering Jensen to angle home Norwich's second equaliser.

Blake's blistering finish gave Burnley the lead at the break but as Jensen flapped at a Huckerby cross, Leon McKenzie scored Norwich's third equaliser seven minutes into the second half before Svensson rose unchallenged to head home Adam Drury's cross and put the Canaries in front.

"We need to win three games to stay up but we'll struggle if we defend like that," Ternent added, after seeing Huckerby score one minute from time, in a move involving substitutes Phil Mulryne and Kevin Cooper.