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It’s not as though Palace did either, certainly not after the early exchanges when we could have quite easily found ourselves behind. Nik Michopoulos, who has certainly been at the centre of some disasters this season, was alert on more than one occasion and the chances led to nothing. We got ourselves sorted after that and despite allowing our visitors to dominate the first half proceedings they created very little after that and it was no real surprise when we went in at half time 0-0.
There was some excitement for the crowd with the runs of Dimitri Papadopoulos and he did get himself in some promising positions only to find a lack of support with the midfield looking somewhat reluctant to support the front players.
I just wonder what has happened to our midfield. Paul Weller and Glen Little were poor again today, pale shadows of the players they have been over the last couple of seasons. Tony Grant and Lenny Johnrose occupied the other two midfield places and they were no better.
The second half saw Mr. Misery Trevor Francis at his defensive best and for almost the entire 45 minutes Palace seemed to be happy to settle for a 0-0 draw and apart from isolated incidents and a lot of Burnley possession they hardly looked as though they wouldn’t accomplish it.
As hard as we tried we didn’t appear to have the know how to break them down and the nearest we came to a goal was a long distance effort from Gareth Taylor that beat substitute keeper Alex Kolinko but went narrowly wide of his left hand post.
Palace were not putting us under any pressure but that bit of luck that is needed right now just wouldn’t come. There is no doubt that Papadopoulos should have won us a penalty when his shirt was pulled but we have already seen in reserve team games that he will struggle to get the decisions he deserves because of his style of play.
His first league start though was promising and not many in Turf Moor would disagree with him taking the sponsors’ man of the match award. This was announced as he was substituted and winning an ovation from the crowd.
Off the field the fans’ performance was patchy. There were times when it sounded like the Turf Moor of old as everything was done to give the lads a lift but there were also occasions when the booing started, none more so than when Dimitri went off.
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We need to get more players into the squad and that will start next week with Arthur’s return from suspension. Cooky has another two games and Steve Davis should hopefully be available soon. Things will get worse before they get better though and both of today’s chosen strikers, Taylor and Papadopoulos, are ruled out next week because of international duty. That means it will be all change again at Derby.
Whatever the team is we could just do with the same result as our only previous visit to Pride Park and really get our season underway. I don’t like being bottom and the sooner we get away from it the better.
Finally a word on the referee. It could have been worse you know, Kevin Lynch was spotted on Harry Potts Way an hour before kick off. However referee Fletcher managed to give out seven yellow cards in a game that surely didn’t warrant it.
Some of them were deserved but some were just ridiculous such as those for Ian Cox and Aki Riihilati certainly fall into that category. The last thing we can afford is yellow cards starting to tot up but for now we are pretty safe on that score.
The teams today were;
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West, Mark McGregor, Ian Cox, Lee Briscoe, Glen Little (Alan Moore 80), Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Lenny Johnrose, Dimitri Papadopoulos (Ian Moore 82), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Graham Branch, Robbie Blake, Andy Payton.
Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke (Alex Kolinko 70), Curtis Fleming, Danny Granville, Darren Powell, Tony Popovic, Danny Butterfield (Steven Thomson 65), Hayden Mullins, Aki Riihilati, Dele Adebola, Dougie Freedman (Wayne Routledge 78), Andy Johnson. Subs not used: Tommy Black, Andrew Frampton.
Referee: Mick Fletcher (Warley, West Midlands)