Stoke, looking for the title after winning promotion only last season, were expected to win easily but that was not the case against a Burnley side that showed three changes from the team announced during the afternoon.
There was no sign of either Alan Moore or trialist Fola Onibuje whilst Nathan Abbey found himself on the bench. In came Tom Ince, Rhys Carpenter and Michael Hale as their replacements.
It was fairly even in the opening stages of the game and the Clarets could easily have gone in front but it was the visitors who scored first through Martin Patterson midway through the first half. He was put through by the wonderfully named Paul Tortoiseshell (back in the Stoke side after hibernation but not injecting too much pace) and slotted it past keeper Michael Hale with ease.
It was 1-0 at half time and the second half followed a similar pattern until Stoke had a period when they could and should have more than doubled their lead. The second goal a quarter of an hour from the end, again from Patterson, but the Clarets had had some scares. Michael Hale pulled off some good saves, they hit the post, put a couple of opportunities wide, and some good defending prevented them getting other shots on target.
That usually signals the end for a Burnley reserve team and we can sit back and watch even more goals go in against us but that wasn’t the case and we came back at them and after a couple of missed opportunities we pulled one back through Marc Pugh.
A poor clearance fell to him and he volleyed into the bottom corner giving the keeper no chance whatsoever.
There was to be no equaliser though despite throwing men forward and Neal Trotman going up front and in the end Hale kept it to two when he tipped a last minute effort onto the post.
Many of the side had played in the LFA Youth Cup Final just two days earlier and considering the effort they put in then this was a good performance from them.
It was also good to see Matt O’Neill back after being sidelined with a knee injury, tendonitis to be exact.
But the Pontin’s Holiday League makes sorry reading for us, we just have not been able to compete at this level during the season and this is one league where we are asking too many boys to do men’s jobs.
The teams were,
Burnley: Michael Hale, Danny Pitham, Ryan Townsend, Neal Trotman, Paul Scott, Marc Pugh, Darrell Avery, Joel Pilkington, Tom Ince (Joe Booth 77), Rhys Carpenter, Matt O’Neill. Subs not used: Nathan Abbey, Adam Jones, Alex Taylor.
Stoke: Robert Duggan, Andy Wilkinson, Carl Dickinson, Jay Denny, Paul Keogh, Gareth Owen, Paul Tortoiseshell, Paul Williams, Jermaine Palmer, Martin Patterson, Lewis Neal. Subs not used: Eric Graves, Danny Smith, Matthew Swift, Scott Musgrove, Danny Hughes.
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