Kids lift Turf Moor

Last updated : 19 April 2003 By Tony Scholes

Matt O'Neill - first start and both goals came from his long throws
O’Neill played his part in the Clarets 2-0 win over a pretty ordinary looking Gillingham side and had a hand, in fact hands, in both of our goals.

He came in for the injured Dimitri Papadopoulos ahead of Brad Maylett who was banished after Stan said he wasn’t good enough at Portsmouth and the only other change saw Driss Diallo return from injury in the centre of defence with Mark McGregor moving to full back for the injured Dean West.

Stretch Armstrong was chosen to play dad on the subs bench where he sat with Richard Chaplow (18), Mark Rasmussen (19), Andrew Leeson (20) and Andrew Waine (20) with Stan opting for youth to complete his squad.

Gillingham are never quite the same side without their irritating manager Andy Hessenthaler in the side and injury again forced him to spend the entire ninety minutes in the dug out with he also opting for some young blood on the bench.

There have been pleas from many of the fans to give some of the youngsters an opportunity and as the Clarets team was announced O’Neill received an excellent reception.

It is fair to say that we started better than Gillingham who for the second year in succession looked anything but up for it and they were certainly not going to pose much of a threat up front with Driss back in the side. He really has been missed.

The Clarets passed the ball around quite nicely although the closest we came to scoring was a poor header from Paul Weller, an effort he really should have done better with. In fact Gillingham were the first to get an effort on target when a shot from distance was well dealt with by Nik Michopoulos.

It really wasn’t the brightest of starts with Turf Moor totally devoid of any atmosphere whatsoever as the sparsely filled stands (including 1,200 on free tickets) failed to find any enthusiasm at all.

Just occasionally there would be a round of applause for a decent pass here or a decent pass there but it certainly wasn’t audience participation stuff with even "StanTernent’s Claret & Blue Army" failing miserably.

But we were on top of the proceedings and it didn’t come of too much of a surprise when we did take the lead just before the half hour and O’Neill certainly played his part. Gillingham keeper Vince Bartram tried to punch clear one of the youngster’s long throws but succeeded only in finding Ian Moore who headed it back in for Gareth Taylor to power home on the volley.

There was little in terms of response from Gillingham and the Clarets could have gone further ahead on a couple of occasions as half time approached. But it was further bad news for Stan that brought an end to the first half when Paul Weller had to come off with a hamstring injury to be replaced by Richard Chaplow.

Richard Chaplow - impressive first home appearance
The 18 year old didn’t get chance to see the ball before the half time whistle saw the Clarets go in with their 1-0 lead intact and fully deserved.

There were no further changes for the second half and the game carried on very much the same as the first half with the Clarets very much the better side in a game that by now was being played almost at a stroll.

O’Neill got the opportunity to throw a few more balls into the box as we won a succession of throw ins down the left hand side and with the third in the space of a couple of minutes he found Driss Diallo who headed in his first Burnley league goal.

The crowd were really warming to O’Neill and Chaplow and the latter had slotted into Weller’s position in the midfield and carried on in the same way as he had done at Norwich and Portsmouth. At times he looked as though he had been there for ever and he was without doubt having an impressive home debut. What he needs to do now is push Robbie Blake out of the way when he tries to take the ball off him.

He even came close to scoring with a shot from the edge of the box but it was blocked by a defender. He was busy in midfield and only occasionally gave the ball away whilst O’Neill was certainly making life difficult for the Gills’ right back.

Neither of them have suddenly become First Division footballers overnight but both have shown exactly why they have won places in the first team squad and have certainly not let themselves down.

O’Neill was substituted with just a few minutes to go and was replaced by debutant Andrew Waine whilst a second debutant Mark Rasmussen then came on for Robbie Blake. O’Neill received a superb reception from the crowd as he left.

But as well as they did none of them were my Man of the Match. That has to go to a player who we signed as a left winger just over four years ago, has spent most of the season at left back but now, even with Arthur in the side, is settling into a new role as a central defender.

Graham Branch quite simply got nothing wrong, he won all his headers, countless tackles and made great use of the ball. I’m not sure I could have ever envisaged Branchy playing in the middle just a few short weeks ago but he looked comfortably at home there today.

And as promised there were no yellow cards from referee Steve Baines. There were a couple of moments when he could have carded but opted to speak to the players. He did OK today despite being hampered by an appalling performance from one of his assistants.

Today though brought us three points that in the big scheme of things are of no great use. We cannot go up and today mathematically we cannot go down. It was though a boost to see some young potential getting an opportunity.

Does anyone know where Marlon and Granty are?

The teams were,

Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Mark McGregor, Graham Branch, Driss Diallo, Arthur Gnohere, Ian Moore, Paul Weller (Richard Chaplow 44), Steve Davis, Robbie Blake (Andrew Waine 87), Matt O’Neill (Mark Rasmussen 89), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Gordon Armstrong, Andrew Leeson.

Gillingham: Vince Bartram, Roland Edge, Barry Ashby, Chris Hope, Nyron Nosworthy, Nicky Southall (David Perpetuini 68), Simon Osborn, Paul Smith, Danny Spiller, Paul Shaw (Akwasi Edusei 80), Mamady Sidibe (Jones Awuha 70). Subs not used: Richard Rose, Leon Johnson.

Referee: Steve Baines (Chesterfield).