Take your shoes and shirts off

Last updated : 28 July 2007 By Tony Scholes
Joey Gudjonsson - impressive second half performance
In front of a crowd of over 5,000 the Clarets were the better side but one or two slips, some from less than eager assistant referees, did cause us a few problems as their strikers, Tresor Kandol in particular, broke clear more often than we would have liked.

There was no Robbie Blake as expected, but Steve Jones and Wayne Thomas were also missing from the squad leaving a starting eleven plus seven substitutes who were all used at some stage during the afternoon.

The LOL side was almost unrecognisable with trialists, youngsters and borrowed goalkeepers although the manager was instantly recognisable and received a welcome from the Burnley fans in the Bob Lord Stand that I can only say was fully deserved.

We started brightly and both Andy Gray and Kyle Lafferty, who started up front, came very close to scoring in the opening minutes. Gray did get the ball in the net but it was ruled out for offside whilst Kyle brought an excellent save from keeper Loach after hitting a shot from distance. The keeper did well to parry it and it was close to falling for Gray before the keeper was able to grab it.

The visiting strikers were getting opportunities but they were often wasteful, and Tresor Kandol in particular had a shocker of an afternoon. He put one effort hopelessly wide and only a couple of minutes later Burnley were in front. Jon Harley, playing on the left hand side of midfield, hit a cross to the far post for Kyle but it was handled by Matt Heath and referee Graham Salisbury pointed to the spot.

Gray made no mistake from twelve yards hitting a powerful shot into the bottom corner to the goalkeeper's left. He went the right way but there was no chance of keeping it out and the Clarets were in front and deservedly so.

We continued to take the game to them but they did nearly grab a freak equaliser when a cross from Jermaine Beckford beat keeper Gabor Kiraly and came back off the inside of the far post. Other than that they were restricted to free kicks taken by Alan Thompson, a player who hardly made any impact on the game at all.

Half time came with us a goal up and we made six changes at the interval, goalkeeper, one up front and the entire midfield four. Ade Akinbiyi was the change up front and he almost doubled the lead with a shot across goal that was narrowly wide but we didn't have long to wait for goal number two.

Joey Gudjonsson, another half time substitute, played a superb cross field ball for Wade Elliott, another on at half time. Wade got in a good early cross and Ade was there to meet it at the far post to guide it home from close range.

It wasn't all Burnley and Brian Jensen had to be in good form more than once as they got through on goal but there were a couple of occasions when it was hard to believe no offside had been given.

The game did fizzle out but there was another opportunity for youngster Jay Rodriguez to get on the pitch and he had his longest run out yet, coming on for Gray.

It is always difficult to judge individual performances when they are playing just half a game but yet again I though Joey Gudjonsson was the pick. He's looking a different player and it might just be the time for Burnley fans to see the best of him.

All in all, another game undefeated and that can't be bad. And at least we know that we are supporting a club that's on the up. That's certainly not the case for those sat in the cricket field stand this afternoon.

"Take your shoes off if you hate Ken Bates," they sang. I almost joined in. "Take your shirt off if you hate Ken Bates," came next at which point I definitely decided not to get involved. It did stop there but we are two weeks away from the start of the season and these League One supporters have no idea if they are going to kick off.

We know we are, an eighth successive season in English football's second tier. We're off to Austria now and then back for West Brom who had Tony Mowbray here watching us today.

The teams were;

Burnley: Gabor Kiraly (Brian Jensen 45), Stephen Foster, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Besart Berisha (Wade Elliott 45), James O'Connor (Joey Gudjonsson 45), Chris McCann (John Spicer 45), Jon Harley (Alan Mahon 45), Andy Gray (Jay Rodriguez 73), Kyle Lafferty (Ade Akinbiyi 45)

League One Leeds: Scott Loach, Frazer Richardson (Robert Bayly 76), Matt Heath, Rui Marques, Eddie Lewis (Ben Parker 33), Jonathan Douglas (Jonathan Howson 70), David Prutton (Curtis Weston 70), Alan Thompson (Sebastien Carole 70), Ian Westlake (Fabian Delph 58), Jermaine Beckford , Tresor Kandol. Subs not used: Richard Cresswell, Nick Hamman, Tom Elliott

Referee: Graham Salisbury (Preston)

Attendance: 5,290