Two in two after late Cort winner

Last updated : 13 July 2010 By Tony Scholes
Steven Thompson
The impressive Steven Thompson scored the first goal
There was plenty to enthuse about after the win at Bury on Saturday, and the Burnley fans turned up in numbers again last night once they were eventually let into the ground not too long ahead of kick off.

As well as the Gigg Lane victory there was plenty of conversation about the previous night's World Cup Final, but little did we know that Paul Dickov's Oldham were all ready to cast themselves in the role of Holland, certainly with some of the challenges going in that would have without doubt met with the approval of Mark van Bommel.

Again Brian Laws opted to use all his squad and he rotated them somewhat with six of the starters from the Bury game on the pitch for the first half at Oldham.

It didn't start particularly well for us and we were behind as early as the sixth minute. Wade Elliott was too easily dispossessed in the midfield and the ball through saw Peter Jones get past Clarke Carlisle and finish with ease as he slotted the ball past Brian Jensen.

Burnley reacted well to that and took the game to the home side and came close a couple of times before Richard Eckersley won a penalty. It was a bit soft, but referee Andy Haines promptly pointed to the spot.

Now came the first problem. Since Andy Gray scored from the spot in the 3-1 win at Charlton in December 2007 all our spot kicks have been taken by Graham Alexander, but he was on the bench sitting out the first half.

So new signing Chris Iwelumo stepped up, did his trademark shimmy and shot weakly at goalkeeper Dean Brill who didn't have too much problem keeping it out.

Most of our other opportunities were long range efforts, but overall in the first half we were the better of the two sides and should really have got ourselves at least level by half time. It wasn't to be and the score remained 1-0 at the interval.

Of the 22 players on view in that first half, only three returned after the break, Brian Jensen, Wade Elliott and Jay Rodriguez.

As was the case at Bury, the second half got too scrappy and for long periods there wasn't much football being played. There were some concerning challenges, not least of them one on Elliott by Ryan Brooke.

And when the same player took out Danny Fox with ten minutes to go it got somewhat ugly with Fox's reaction. Amazingly referee Haines took no action against Fox but insisted that Brooke, and rightly so, be substituted, although the player did come back on again five minutes later.

By then there could have been goals at either end. Jensen made one outstanding save to his right, but that was bettered by a brilliant save from Fleming in the Oldham goal to deny Jay Rod.

Then, the game turned around in the last seven minutes. Firstly Fox played the ball up for Steven Thompson. He run onto it and made no mistake chipping it past Fleming. He'd been our outstanding player on the night and fully deserved his goal.

Then, four minutes later, Wes Fletcher, on as a sub, had a good run halted with yet another foul. This time Grezza took the free kick and it found Cort at the far post and the defender headed the ball back across and in at the far post.

That was enough to win it. We played well enough in patches during the game but the concerns were defensively and we could so easily have conceded more than the one goal.

So, it's Buxton next and a game when some of the younger players should get some more action whilst the senior players get their packing done for Singapore.

The teams were;

Oldham Athletic

First Half: Dean Brill, Kieran Lee, Rod McDonald, Reuben Hazell, Paul Black, Kirk Millar, Ritchie Jones, Dale Stephens, Philip McGrath, Peter Jones, Pawel Abbott.

Second Half: Greg Fleming, Lanre Oyebanjo, Ferenc Fodor, Jason Jarrett, Kelvin Lomax, Lewis Alessandra, Jonathan Worthington, Dean Furman, Sean Highdale (Ryan Brooke 85), Tom Eaves, Ryan Brooke (Kieran Lee 80).

Burnley

First Half: Brian Jensen, Richard Eckersley, Clarke Carlisle, Michael Duff, Brian Easton, Dean Marney, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Jay Rodriguez, Chris Iwelumo, Chris Eagles.

Second Half: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott (Alex-Ray Harvey 75), Kevin McDonald, Jay Rodriguez (Wes Fletcher 75), Steven Thompson, Ross Wallace.

Referee: Andy Haines (Tyne & Wear).

Attendance: 2,273 (including 1,038 Clarets).