 | Graham Alexander - scored from the penalty spot |
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It was very much a home from home. The Huddersfield ticket office was manned by Elaine and Brenda from Turf Moor, accompanied by secretary Pauline, and once in the ground Alex Wood was parading down the touchline in his capacity of safety officer.
With neither end of the ground open we were given the lower tier of the main stand, more than enough room for barely more than a thousand Clarets, whilst Stoke had the stand opposite where their 300 or so were almost camouflaged by the colour of the seats.
Huddersfield has been infiltrated by stroppy Icelandics this summer, but there was no sign of Joey Gudjonsson who was otherwise engaged in a game at Scunthorpe. He upset a lot of people at Burnley with his comments towards the end of last season but he became a friend again a couple of weeks ago, albeit briefly, following his stunning goal against Blackburn.
No one had bothered to produce a match programme for the game, probably no one was sure who should be responsible for it, so there was nothing to read ahead of kick off. Instead we were checking out the starting line up expecting that it could be the eleven that start the league next week against Nottingham Forest.
Brian Jensen was in goal, behind a back four of Tyrone Mears, Andre Bikey, Michael Duff and Danny Fox. In front of them was Graham Alexander and then the midfield pairing of Wade Elliott and Dean Marney. The front three, and surely Brian Laws will start with this system next week, were Martin Paterson, Steven Thompson and Ross Wallace.
The Burnley directors were there in force but you have to think some of them might have had a few drinks too many when they chose their guests. Alongside Brendan Flood was Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell, but there was worse than that. Sat to the side of Barry Kilby was the goldfish loving club wrecker Peter Ridsdale.
Overall, the first half of the game was hardly eye catching football. One local scribe at half time suggested to me that it had been a good advertisement for playing all pre-season games behind closed doors.
Stoke came closest to a goal, and that was early in the game when Liam Lawrence chipped a ball in from the right that left Brian Jensen floundering and eventually relieved when he saw it come off the bar.
Other than that, the Beast did little wrong, but there again he didn't have too much to do to be honest although more than Asmir Begovic at the other end. Stoke did have problems with both Glenn Whelan and Rory Delap having to come off with injuries. Delap's departure put an end to the long throws into the box.
The brightest part of our play came from our ability to get the ball into wide positions and get good crosses into the box. Today we were against some very good Premier League defenders and at times they were stretched to deal with the balls coming in.
Half time came with the score still 0-0 with us left hoping that the second half might be better with potentially some goals. We got that although it was Stoke who went on to win it.
Laws made two changes at half time. Lee Grant replaced Jensen and Leon Cort came on for Duff. Poor Grant, one of the first things he had to do was pick the ball out of the net. The ball went out wide to the former Sunderland film star Liam Lawrence. He got the better of his former Wearside team mate Wallace and crossed to the far post where Tuncay came in behind Mears to power in a header.
It should have been 1-1 soon afterwards. Incredibly the difficult to fathom referee Peter Quinn turned down a clear penalty when Wade Elliott was brought down. He run in as if he was going to give it and then amazingly waved it away.
Burnley then changed the front three, although Wallace's withdrawal was because of an injury, and almost immediately we were level. We won a corner on the right hand side. A corner is one of those things that we don't score from.
This time it came beyond the far post and Robert Huth clearly held back Chris Iwelumo and this time Quinn did point to the spot. I'm just blasé where spot kicks are concerned now when I see Grezza stepping up. It went where all his others have gone, into the back of the net and that was 1-1.
Unfortunately Stoke were back in front within a minute, Michael Tonge hitting a shot from the edge of the box that swerved almost like a World Cup ball as it flew into the net. Grant was left helpless, but he was soon in the action again and twice did well to ensure the lead remained at one goal.
We did come close to a second equaliser. Andre Bikey was the closest of all, heading over from point blank range whilst Jay Rodriguez tested Begovic with a couple of shots from distance.
But it wasn't to be and we suffered our first defeat of the pre-season. Now, it's the real thing and we start with Nottingham Forest and Little Billy next week.
The teams today were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen (Lee Grant 45), Tyrone Mears, Andre Bikey (Clarke Carlisle 81), Michael Duff (Leon Cort 45), Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney (David Edgar 81), Martin Paterson (Jay Rodriguez 64), Steven Thompson (Chris Iwelumo 64), Ross Wallace (Chris Eagles 64). Subs not used: Richard Eckersley, Brian Easton, Kevin McDonald, Alex-Ray Harvey, Wes Fletcher.
Stoke Asmir Begovic, Robert Huth (Wilkinson 71), Abdoulaye Faye, Ryan Shawcross, Danny Higginbotham, Liam Lawrence, Glenn Whelan (Danny Pugh 17), Dean Whitehead, Rory Delap (Michael Tonge 26), Tuncay, Mamady Sidibe (Ricardo Fuller 75). Subs not used: Thomas Sorensen, Danny Collins.
Referee: Peter Quinn (Cleveland).
Attendance: 1,435. |
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