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The football was at times scrappy and both defences were having problems and it did look as though there would be more goals. Indeed there were and Gareth Taylor restored Burnley’s lead before skipper Steve Davis added a third. Taylor and Davis had been the scorers just a year ago when we started the tournament with a 2-0 win, also against Wrexham.
Two goals up and coasting it appeared but by half time it was all level at 3-3 as Wrexham came back, the equaliser going in with just four minutes of the first half left.
It hadn’t been a great first half and the second 45 minutes didn’t improve things. It got somewhat scrappy but that is often the case when a number of substitutions are made.
One substitution though was the biggest surprise of the second half. Marlon Beresford had replaced Nik Michopoulos in goal but then Wrexham keeper Andy Dibble (sent off in his last game playing for Stockport) had to leave the field injured along with Alan Moore after a clash. With no substitute available Michopoulos then went on and played the rest of the game in goal for Wrexham.
The hold up had been long and it forced seven extra minutes at the end of the game but the second half proved to be goalless. Apparently the tournament has now taken on the American idea of not having draws and so we went into a penalty shoot out and with Steve Davis off the field and Kevin Ball no longer at the club hopes were high.
The high hopes were justified too. Wrexham went first and scored before Gareth Taylor scored for Burnley. Then it was 2-2 with Paul Cook scoring ours. Wrexham missed the next one before Robbie Blake scored for his first Burnley goal to give us a 3-2 lead. Both scored again and it was Ian Moore for Burnley, that was 4-3. Wrexham needed to score their last penalty to stay in it but were unsuccessful and so the Clarets won it 4-3 with no need to take the fifth.
Burnley lined up: Nik Michopoulos (Marlon Beresford 64), Dean West (Mark McGregor 55), Steve Davis (Marlon Broomes 55), Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch, Glen Little (Ian Moore 79), Tony Grant, Lee Briscoe, Alan Moore (Paul Cook 77), Gareth Taylor, Dimitri Papadopoulos (Robbie Blake 55).
And the Wrexham team was: Andy Dibble (Nik Michopoulos 77), Jim Whitley (Brian Carey 45), Shaun Holmes, Steve Roberts, Dan Bennett (Wayne Phillips 45), Dennis Lawrence, Carlos Edwards (Paul Edwards 45), Lee Jones (Lee Trundle 45), Hector Sam, Steve Thomas, Paul Barrett (Andy Morrell 45).
Wrexham now take on the other team in the group Luton Town tomorrow evening before the Clarets play The Hatters on Tuesday afternoon.
There’ll be more from this hot bed of international football during the next week.