Back to the top as McCann gets comeback goal

Last updated : 12 April 2011 By Tony Scholes
Dominic Knowles
The game saw Chris get his third appearance at this level as he comes back from knee surgery and this time, apart from his goal, he completed 90 minutes as the reserves went back to the top of the league by beating Macclesfield Town 2-0.

He's the centre of attention right now for the reserve spectators, and rightly so, and he stepped up his comeback again with this full game although he was visibly tiring towards the end.

But this performance wasn't all about McCann and there were some very good individual performances in a comfortable team performance, and from a very young team.

Alongside McCann and trialist Louis-Rae Beadle, playing his third game, there were only three members of Ash Hoskin's development squad with the team otherwise made up of six members of the youth squad - namely Josh Cook, Tom Anderson, Ross Wilson, Steven Hewitt, Tommy Taylor and Joe Jackson.

There was a lot of scrappy play in the first half but also some moments of really good football as this young Burnley team got to grips with Macc and in particular their striker Vinny Mukendi who had really got into the spirit of things by playing in yellow boots and having his hair coloured yellow to match their away kit.

Taylor was very prominent in the early stages with some excellent delivery into the box and we could so easily have had a couple of goals from them. Jackson came the closest but saw his header well saved by goalkeeper Jack Cudworth.

Just before the half hour, having been far the better side, we could have fallen behind and it was a close thing. Nik Kudiersky got in to divert a shot away but via the post. It was an escape and within a minute we'd made the most of it by taking the lead.

The credit for this one goes to Hewitt who played in Beadle with a superb pass on the right hand side leaving the trialist with a simple ball to play in. And there was McCann with an easy header to get that all important first goal on his return to fitness.

If Hewitt had been the architect of the first goal then the hugely impressive Dominic Knowles was very much the key man on the second that came just a couple of minutes before half time. It was a great ball from the left that found Beadle. It looked initially as if he'd missed the chance but it looped over the keeper and in to give us the two goal cushion.

Macclesfield had their best spell in the second half and Mukendi, who had scored the late League Two equaliser against Accrington last Thursday, was proving a tough opponent. Josh Cook came to the fore with two good saves, one of which was from the top drawer. He somehow managed to get to a shot from close range and tip it over, a brilliant reaction save.

Eventually we got back on top and remained so for much of the remainder of the game and there is no doubt we should have added more goals. They didn't come and it was Macc who forced the last bit of action in the last minute when Cook again did well to deny Mukendi.

Again there were some very good individual performances from this very young Clarets team and none more so that Knowles and Hewitt.

It's a win that's taken us back to the top of the league although Preston's games in hand still leave them very much favourites.

The teams were;

Burnley: Josh Cook, Nik Kudiersky, Chris Lynch, Tom Anderson (Curtis Woods 80), Louis-Rae-Beadle, Steven Hewitt (Dean Overson 84), Chris McCann, Tommy Taylor (James Taylor 69), Dominic Knowles, Ross Wilson, Joe Jackson. Subs not used: Craig Mawson, Ed Williams, Steve Edwards, Archie Love.

Macclesfield: Jack Cudworth, Elliott Hewitt, Patrick Montgomery, Jack Lane, James Moss, Greg Daniels, Adam Roberts, Max Londsdale, Kynan Mason (Jacob Vernon 82), Tom Meachin (Jordan Trinci-Lyne 73), Vinny Mukendi. Subs not used: Andrew Mills, Georgie Robertson.