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Once again the star of the game was Greek U-21 international Dimitrios Papadopoulos who scored both goals and could easily have had a couple more. His compatriot, Giorgios Alexopoulos clocked up some more air miles to return for a second showing following his impressive game at RAF Cosford last week, and Canadian Rick Titus breezed in from Vancouver in an attempt to solve Stan's dilemma over that pesky left-back position. Supremo Ronnie also gave a reserve team debut up front to Steven Richardson, yet another of legendary scout Jack Hixon's lads.
Admission was free to this game thanks to the generosity of non-EU trialist Titus, but this announcement came late in the day so the majority of fans would presumably have already decided to come. Nearly all attendees at reserve games are season ticket holders anyway, so what the club lost on the gate, they more than made up for on the pie and hot drinks front. Indeed, it's the first time I can remember seeing people leave their seats before halftime to beat the queue. Stewards were even directing latecomers to vacant seats during the game's opening stages!
The Clarets, in 4-4-2, lined up: Cennamo; McGregor (capt), Williamson, Alexopoulos, Titus; Shandran, Pilkington, Waine, Maylett; Papadopoulos (O'Neill 63), Richardson (Ellis 46). Subs not used: Salisbury, Earl Davis, Scott.
Preston included experience in the form of The Wasp-Chewing One's assistant O'Hanlon and transfer-listed Northern Ireland international Robinson. Barry-Murphy has also represented Ireland at U-21 level and the Frenchman Skora and the York-born ex-Lodz Pole Abbott were both former youth internationals. Of particular interest to Clarets' fans was the inclusion up front of Joe O'Neill, the older brother of our own Matthew and Ed. Rather sweetly, they waved at each other before kick-off. Aaah!
Preston: Kelham O'Hanlon; Patrick Quinn, Adam Douglas (Remo Nesa 62), Darren Kempson, Adam Eaton, Eric Skora, Brian Barry-Murphy, Stephen Robinson, Pawel Abbott (Michael Kewley 46), Joe O'Neill, John Bailey. Subs not used: Ricky Mercer, Mark Cromwell, Lee Madden.
Not a great deal happened in the first half hour or so. Preston passed the ball around quite well, and Luigi had to make a couple of charges off his line to cut out through balls. Burnley however were struggling to regain the fluency they had shown against Wolves last week. Shandran, playing on the right side of midfield for the second game in a row, was making some powerful surges, and Maylett was causing some problems on the left. But the play was being frequently interrupted by the whistle of an over-officious referee who managed to book five players in a game that didn't contain one bad foul. The new-look teamsheet had clearly misprinted his name when it referred to him as Mr Pollock.
However, we were creating the occasional chance and Williamson and Dimi both went close before the game was brought to life with a Preston goal in the 37th minute. Another through ball, another Lui charge; this time he grasped thin air allowing the ball to be pulled back to Blackburn-born Brother Joe who thumped it home with rather unseemly glee. You could almost feel Stan's basilisk-like glare from the murky depths of the CFS burning into the hapless goalie's back.
This seemed to spark Burnley into life, and for the next half-hour proceeded to run Preston ragged. The excellent Waine and Pilkington took charge of central midfield, and defenders McGregor and Titus were getting forward down the flanks. In the 40th minute, a lovely piece of skill by Alexopoulos set Williamson off on an Arthur-like rampage. His superb through ball let in Dimi whose inch perfect shot past the diving O'Hanlon made it 1-1.
A minute later Titus was narrowly wide from 25 yards, and then Waine shot over in what was almost a carbon copy of the goal. All square at halftime, and the teams left the field to generous applause.
Ellis replaced Richardson at the restart. With only a handful of youth team appearances to his name the youngster had done well alongside Dimi. He showed some neat, headed flicks and had looked quite strong on the ground. Yet another promising talent coming through.
Within a couple of minutes Pilkington shot just over after a nice piece of head tennis had set him up. In the 49th minute we were in front. Neat passing between Shandran and Pilkington put Dimi through and he calmly side-footed the ball past O'Hanlon into the roof of the net. Five minutes later and the same move almost led to a third, but this time Papa just failed to finish.
Preston just couldn't cope with the speed and skill of Papadopoulos. Eaton was only booked for bringing Dimi down when he seemed clear on goal, and then following a delightful Waine chip he brought the ball down beautifully only to blaze over when a second successive hat-trick seemed certain.
But as the Supremo has said, the needs of the first-team must override those of the reserves, and with Saturday in mind Papa was withdrawn after 63 minutes to much applause. Seven goals in six appearances in this country (eight in seven if you count Ewood) is not a bad return. And still the best to come!
(Matthew O'Neill replaced him leading to much scratching of heads for Clarets' completists (anoraks?). When was the last time a Burnley player played against his brother? Willie Irvine scoring against brother Bobby in goal for Stoke in a 4-1 win in the 1965-6 season? Anyone come up with another one?)
Preston immediately seized the moment. So great was their relief at seeing the back of that troublesome Greek that they went upfield and equalised. Mr P*llock decided that an innocuous challenge was worth a penalty, much to Cap'n Macca's disgust, and Robinson did the necessaries from the spot.
Both sides continued to create chances and Lui had to make two good stops from O'Neill, J. Ellis and Shandran both went close, but our earlier fluency had gone. Frustration set in, and Pilkington, Maylett and Williamson were all booked for minor fouls.
Two minutes from time tough, and a sublime moment. Following a great Shandran flick Ellis lobbed O'Hanlon only to see TWCO's assistant make a spectacular backwards leap and tip the ball over. Not bad for a couple with a combined age of 76!
A point apiece then was a fair result in this entertaining game. Trialist Titus looked good in the air and showed some reasonable touches on the ground, but he tired visibly in the game's latter stages. We may never look upon his like again. However I doubt very much if the same can be said of Alexopoulos who was outstanding once more. Not only is he a more than talented player, but his swarthy good looks gave rise to a sudden rush to the front of the BLS late on, when after sustaining an injury to his hand several Clarettes wanted to run onto the pitch and kiss it better! Expect a contract to be offered soon.
It only remained to negotiate the traffic jam off the car park to round off a very pleasing evening. A good game, a good crowd and a Russ Abbott-like atmosphere. Let's hope that the missing hundreds return in the New Year when we are next at home to Tranmere.
Rolling up for the reserves could become quite a habit!
