|
Never have cup runs been more important but it has to be said there is precious little money to be made out of the Worthington Cup in the early rounds, tonight a crowd of just 7,448 paid reduced prices. If the Clarets are to make money out of it then we have to get past the next round and hope for one of the big clubs in the 43rd round.
Firstly though we have to get through the 1st round and that has been no easy task for Burnley sides over the years. We did that tonight with some ease and now await news of our next opponents.
It was no surprise to see the same eleven who had played so well at Derby in the second half get the nod for tonight’s game and that meant our returning internationals, Taylor and Papadopoulos, had to make do with seats on the bench alongside Andy Payton, Nik Michopoulos and Alan Moore.
We started well but what we needed was an early goal and it came from the most unlikely source in the most unlikely way. When we were awarded a free kick on the edge of the Blackpool penalty box nobody got excited at the prospect of anything coming from it. We have learned all too well that free kicks from this sort of range either go into row Z or straight into the wall. Given what happened at Reading a couple of weeks ago the preferred option is row Z.
Robbie Blake looked to be set to take it but stood aside as Fred West hit it round the Blackpool wall and into the bottom corner. Cue wild celebrations from Fred who was scoring his first ever Burnley goal in his fourth season with the club. For a player with 28 league goals for his previous clubs Lincoln and Bury this has been a long wait.
Blackpool certainly pass the ball about nicely but in the first half the Clarets were clearly the better team and could, and probably should, have gone further ahead. There seemed to be no answer to Glen’s trickery down the right and we once again looked eager to make sure of a good result.
Half time came though with the score still 1-0 but it was a fairly relaxed half time interval for once with most fans believing that we would have too much for Blackpool. That was to change somewhat though as the visitors started the second half a lot better and started to put us under some pressure. They had made two half time substitutions and looked a lot better for it.
For the first time we were struggling to get enough possession of the ball and Blackpool got and missed their first real chance. John Murphy, one of their two subs, missed the easiest of chances. Stan decided to do something about it. With just eight minutes gone he made two substitutions, replacing Robbie Blake and Glen Little with Gareth Taylor and Alan Moore, and then on the hour Dimitri Papadopoulos came on for Ian Moore.
|
There seemed no way back for Blackpool now but then we did find ourselves down to ten men as Paul Weller went off with what looked as though it could be a groin injury. After some treatment he returned but looked a passenger, his stay didn’t need to be too long though.
A cross from the right was inexplicably handled by Blackpool’s former Blackburn defender Simon Grayson and referee Webster had the easiest of tasks in pointing to the penalty spot. Although Robbie Blake took the penalty on Saturday he did admit afterwards that he shouldn’t have taken it, apparently Fred West is the nominated penalty taker.
This time West came storming up but once again he was prevented from taking it as Gareth Taylor grabbed the ball. For the second match in succession though Phil Barnes saved a spot kick. This time he guessed correctly and went to his left to save. He could only parry the ball and Papadopoulos was onto it so quickly that he found himself with easiest of tasks to hit in the rebound.
That enabled Weller to come off again and we saw out the game with ten men without any real scares as the Cricket Field End began to empty. The excellent Blackpool support had seen enough and many of them would have been close to the M55 by the time the final whistle blew.
It wasn’t a perfect performance by any means but was good enough to see his through comfortably against a side who played nice football but were definitely second best in both boxes.
Arthur Gnohere received the sponsor’s man of the match award and who am I to argue. Since returning to the side following suspension Arthur has been impressive alongside Coxy at the back. Tonight again they did well and either of them would have been deserving of the award.
A word too about the referee. He did well and always looked to keep the game going. That was never clearer than the incident when Robbie Blake was fouled on the edge of the Blackpool box and he gave the free kick that led to us taking the lead. He gave Blake every chance to continue when he saw him trying to stay on his feet but blew when Blake didn’t get through. Excellent refereeing.
The money men at Turf Moor will be delighted that we have won ourselves another game and will await Saturday’s draw in the hope of a money making tie, maybe the likes of Everton or Sunderland. Personally I would still like to see us get a more than winnable home tie and get a bit further even though our recent history in this competition suggests that is unlikely.
But for now we have played quite well again tonight and are in the 2nd round and no more could have been asked of us.
The teams tonight were:
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Arthur Gnohere, Mark McGregor, Glen Little (Alan Moore 53), Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Lee Briscoe, Robbie Blake (Gareth Taylor 53), Ian Moore (Dimitri Papadopoulos 60). Subs not used: Nik Michopoulos, Andy Payton.
Blackpool: Phil Barnes, Tommy Jaszczun, John O’Kane, John Hills, Simon Grayson, Danny Coid, Keith Southern, Lee Collins (Martin Bullock 45), Richie Wellens (Richard Walker 83), Paul Dalglish (John Murphy 45), Scott Taylor. Subs not used: Steve McMahon, Jamie Burns.
Referee: Colin Webster (Shotley Bridge, Co. Durham).