Still for those who did venture out and pay their £10 or £5 it was an enjoyable night as we took on a side that last season picked up 40 Premiership points, the considered safety total.
Will Stan continue with a 4-4-2 system this year or will he switch back to three central defenders with wing backs? No real clues I suppose with both systems used although I suspect the initial 4-4-2 in the first half is the likely formation with the starting line up close to the starting eleven against Brighton.
Not everything is perfect though and I was very disappointed with some so called Burnley fans sat not too far behind me with their behaviour just before kick off. As Mr. Here at Turf Moor announced the Burnley team over the tannoy the first two names, Michopoulos and West, were greeted with cheers but the booing started when he announced ‘Number 3 Graham Branch’. What do these people want? Do they really support Burnley?
As for the game and the performance it’s not really a time for picking out individuals and to be fair nobody had a bad game but I was particularly impressed with Robbie Blake during his time on the pitch. He has a lot to prove after the situation last season when injury prevented him making any impact but his quality did show through tonight playing behind the front two.
It was last season’s leading scorer Gareth Taylor who found the net for the Clarets, predictably with a header. It came as we approached half time from a Lee Briscoe free kick. We didn’t hold the lead for long though and shortly after the restart a shot from some 20 yards from Henrik Pedersen nestled into the bottom corner to Nik’s left.
Stan made a number of changes and in fact Lee Briscoe and Alan Moore were both substituted and then returned whilst Sam Allardyce changed his entire side at half time with twenty-two players all getting a half each.
Overall though an enjoyable evening played in a virtually empty Turf Moor but an evening that gave us all some hope for the new season. Playing football at the Turf made a refreshing change after the summer of news regarding the financial problems.
We move on to Bury next on Saturday for the last of the pre-season games before hopefully a much bigger crowd than tonight turn up at the Turf in ten days time for the first league game of the season against Brighton.
The teams for tonight's game were;
Burnley: Nik Michopoulos, Dean West (Marlon Broomes 45), Steve Davis (Mark McGregor 60), Arthur Gnohere (Ian Cox 52), Graham Branch (Gordon Armstrong 60), Glen Little (Andy Payton 72), Tony Grant (Lee Briscoe 69), Lee Briscoe (Paul Cook 45), Alan Moore (Robbie Blake 45), Ian Moore (Dimitri Papadopoulos 45), Gareth Taylor (Alan Moore 65).
Bolton Wanderers (first half): Jussi Jaaskelainen, Bernard Mendy, Simon Charlton, Bruno N’Gotty, Mike Whitlow, Per Frandsen, Kevin Nolan, Jay-Jay Okacha, Michael Ricketts, Bo Hansen, Ricardo Gardner.
(Second half): Kevin Poole, Nicky Southall, Anthony Barness, Paul Warhurst, Gudni Bergsson, Danny Livesey, Gareth Farrelly, Henrik Pedersen, Delroy Facey, Youri Djorkaef, Jermaine Johnson.