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Stan had insisted that we did better than Saturday but it didn’t start that way. In fact we were awful in the early exchanges and there seemed to be no improvement from Saturday whatsoever.
In fact Bradford deservedly went in front on 18 minutes although there will be questions asked as to whether the ball did in fact cross the line. A Claus Jorgensen header beat Marlon but Driss Diallo managed to hook it clear only for the assistant to flag that the ball had crossed the line.
From my vantage point it was impossible to decide but there didn’t seem to be much, if any, complaint from the Burnley players at the time and that did suggest the assistant had got it right. However subsequent TV pictures have in fact suggested that he perhaps didn’t get it right at all despite being perfectly positioned.
It went from bad to worse for the Clarets and with only half an hour on the clock we had been forced into making two substitutions. Firstly Tony Grant replaced Paul Cook who had been injured in an incident right on the half way line touchline in front of the Bob Lord. It looked a bad foul but the same assistant who had given the goal ignored it totally.
Four minutes later and Arthur was on for the injured Diallo slotting into the centre of defence alongside Steve Davis.
It made no difference though, we were poor before the substitutions and we were poor after them and as half time arrived you struggled to find one occasion when we had really given Bradford any difficulty.
Robbie Blake came on for the second half in place of Lee Briscoe and there is no doubt that we did much better in the second half. We did score through Ian Moore but it was disallowed for offside. Mooro run in to hit home the rebound after Bradford keeper Aidan Davison had parried a shot from Blake.
The flag was quick to go up and Bradford escaped. Despite getting more of the play, despite moving forward a lot better we weren’t to get that close again. There were a couple of occasions when we should have got shots in but didn’t and a couple of occasions when efforts went close.
Bradford are not the best sort of side to play against. They go out of their way to spoil games. They go out of their way to wind up the opposition. Time wasting, moving balls forward, niggling, they have it all and it never leads to a good game. But they always looked dangerous going when they did get the chance to go forwards.
Referee Webster run the show like a lottery at times, you certainly had as much chance of selecting the six numbers as you had of working out his next decision. He missed fouls but gave them for nothing. He allowed 70 minutes to be played before bothering with cards and then decided to card just about everything.
Steve Davis was first in his book and that looked a poor decision, Bradford’s Danny Forrest was next and that was just ridiculous. But the unluckiest of all was Arthur who managed two in the space of five minutes, certainly the first one looked harsh, and was sent off.
Bradford chose not to showboat against reduced numbers though and within a minute of Arthur’s departure wrapped it all up with a second and perhaps the final score of 2-0 did flatter them.
But they did deserve to win despite and I think we are all thankful now for a short break. Someone wrote just a month ago that March would be the test for the Clarets. We won the first game in the month at Stoke but since then have picked up just two more points from six league games as well as going out of the cup.
The whole place is flat at the moment, there’s no atmosphere, the crowds are dwindling at an alarming rate and there is no urgency and desire out on the pitch. Tonight’s was the smallest crowd for a league game on the Turf since late 1999. Hopefully by the time Watford turn up we will have got that desire back both on and off the pitch. We certainly need to have got it back.
The teams tonight were,
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Steve Davis, Driss Diallo (Arthur Gnohere 30), Graham Branch, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Paul Cook (Tony Grant 26), Lee Briscoe (Robbie Blake 45), Ian Moore, Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Nik Michopoulos, Mark McGregor.
Bradford City: Aidan Davison, Mark Bower, Simon Francis. David Wetherall, Gus Uhlenbeek, Claus Jorgensen, Ben Muirhead, Peter Atherton, Paul Reid, Danny Forrest, Andy Gray. Subs not used: Gary Walsh, Daniel Ekoku, Craig Fishlock, Michael Standing, Kevin Sanasy.
Referee (or lottery draw master): Colin Webster (Shotley Bridge).