Draw ends pre-season programme

Last updated : 14 August 2003 By Tony Scholes

Ian Moore - man of the match performance
Pre-season friendlies against Premiership clubs have become commonplace over the past few years at the Turf with the likes of Bolton, Chelsea, Everton, Man City, Newcastle and Sunderland visiting.

The games have at times been tedious affairs with little flow to games that have been interrupted with countless substitutions. It has though at times given us the opportunity to see some top players, in particular I recall Gianfranco Zola’s brief appearance for Chelsea two years ago.

This year has been different though although it is fair to say that neither Leeds nor Birmingham bring the biggest names with them. Both games have been far more competitive than in previous years and certainly far more entertaining.

Last week nobody could have been disappointed with the Leeds game and again against Birmingham it was a 90 minutes well worth watching.

The game was supposedly set for a 1:00 p.m. kick off but for some reason it was fast approaching 1:20 by the time it got underway. There was no explanation for it and certainly it wasn’t delayed to get the crowd in with just 3,912 the recorded attendance.

Neither was it because the Birmingham fans had been delayed, they didn’t bother coming, just a handful of them in the Cricket Field Stand. That could have been no surprise though, neither Birmingham City nor the local Birmingham evening paper bothered to advertise the game. There was no mention of it during Friday or on Saturday morning on Birmingham’s web site.

Needless to say one Birmingham player came in for some stick from the moment he came out onto the field. When you move from Blackburn and then play against Burnley on the Turf you can expect no more. It’s funny and the player deserves it but surely not every time he touches the ball or goes anywhere near it. It does begin to get rather tiresome after a while.

Yes a former Blackburn player can expect it but the Burnley fans were so obsessed with Dunn yesterday that not once did they even react to the presence of Damien Johnson who was on the right hand side of the Birmingham midfield. You got the impression that he could have scored and would have received no stick.

As against Leeds the Clarets started very brightly, in fact probably stronger than they had the previous week. The forward players Robbie Blake and Ian Moore aided and abetted by Glen Little took the game to Birmingham and with any luck at all we could have had an early goal.

But with just nine minutes on the clock we fell behind and what a poor goal it was from our point of view. Acting captain Graham Branch looked as though he was passing back but succeeded in doing nothing other than presenting Birmingham with the ball. Former Burnley target Geoff Horsfield made no mistake and gave Brian Jensen no chance.

We didn’t deserve it, we had started the better of the two sides, and to our credit we kept going forward and kept taking the game to Birmingham. We were rewarded midway through the half with a stunning equaliser.

Alan Moore, who had a quiet game, won the ball in midfield and moved forward before playing the ball to Ian Moore. Mooro just outside the box by its left corner curled in a shot that nestled into the corner leaving Ian Bennett grasping at thin air. It was a super finish from Mooro who is currently finding the net with ease and was reminiscent of his first Burnley goal scored at Deepdale back in December 2000.

The lead didn’t last long though when the inevitable happened – David Dunn scored. The constant abuse he was getting had me thinking about Kurt Nogan and how he always used to silence it with a goal. Dunn did the same.

He muscled Lee Roche off the ball down Birmingham’s left and then moved inside skipping a challenge before moving into the box and chipping the ball in past the oncoming Jensen. He took it well and duly celebrated in front of the Bob Lord Stand although there were no signs of the promised t-shirt.

That was the end of the goal mouth action and at half time we were treated to the cheerleaders who now wear blue and white and wave blue and white pom poms. Apparently there is some claret trim but that hardly noticeable from the stands and to all intents and purposes they look more like cheerleaders from down the M65.

Having started late the half time interval dragged on long enough for South African cricket captain Graeme Smith to hit a century. It was well over 20 minutes before the players emerged and then they had to wait some considerable time for referee Salisbury who when he finally appeared acknowledged the Harry Potts Longside’s ironic cheers.

After his performance last week Richard Chaplow had started the game quietly against Dunn and the impressive Robbie Savage but as the first half wore on he came more and more into it and was getting on top of proceedings early in the second half.

Savage was impressive but he’s worse than the likes of Ince and Rae at Wolves for trying to referee the game. Just about every decision that went against Birmingham he complained about and he certainly had something to complain about when Lee Roche clattered into him earning the new Claret his first yellow card of the season.

On the hour though the Clarets drew level for a second time and again no more than our play had deserved. Arthur Gnohere played a superb ball forward for Mooro who broke into the box only to be fouled by Kenny Cunningham.

A penalty it was and Robbie Blake powered it home into the bottom corner to the keeper’s right. We are doing very well thanks very much for penalties at the moment, I just hope it continues into the league season.

We then had both sides making four substitutions over the next period which virtually brought the game to a standstill with two of those substitutions significant.

Firstly David Dunn was hauled off by Steve Bruce after he was involved in an ugly incident. He was yellow carded for a bad foul but Fred West (on for Paul Weller) reacted badly and was very lucky to escape a card himself. This prompted another brawl, almost on the same spot as last week’s, and this must be a real concern for Stan.

We need to be competitive and fight for each other but not literally and had these happened in league games we would already be totting up a few suspensions that our squad simply cannot afford.

Mo Camara, he had his best game yet for us, came off with some 18 minutes to go to be replaced by third year scholar Paul Scott. Not many brothers have played for the Clarets over the years but Paul now joins brother Chris having now played in the first team. And then again there’s dad Derek along with uncle David Miller and granddad Brian Miller. I’m sure no other family can match that anywhere in English football.

Paul certainly got nothing wrong but the game did peter out in the final minutes as both teams took it easy and settled for a draw. Now it’s the real thing, just a week away against Palace.

There were some outstanding individual performances but I thought the sponsors got it right in giving the man of the match to Ian Moore. He worked his socks off, scored a breathtaking goal and won us the penalty. Now unfortunately he has to sit out the next three matches because of a suspension.

Just who will be in the starting line up next week remains to be seen but Stan is not going to have the biggest of squads to choose from and could be hard pushed to fill the subs bench,

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Graham Branch, Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara (Paul Scott 72), Glen Little, Paul Weller (Dean West 62), Richard Chaplow, Alan Moore (Tony Grant 59), Ian Moore, Robbie Blake (Matt O’Neill 72).

Birmingham: Ian Bennett, Olivier Tebily, Kenny Cunningham, Darren Purse, Jamie Clapham, Damien Johnson, Robbie Savage, David Dunn (Stephen Clemence 72), Stan Lazaridis (Darren Carter 64), Geoff Horsfield (Paul Devlin 64), Stern John (Jovan Kirovski 64).

Referee: Graham Salisbury (Preston).