Convincing win for stronger Clarets

The opening ten or so minutes were scrappy as a strong wind blew directly towards the Stanley goal. Every clearance from the visitors was coming straight back at speed down the flanks as Ali Akbar and Lewis Craig tormented their full backs.

The breakthrough came just before the quarter hour mark. A wind-assisted Jon Sergeant goal kick was misjudged by the Stanley left back and Akbar was in down the wing. He put over a pinpoint cross that Alex McDonald rose to head home, back across the keeper.

Five minutes later a Claret break by Paul Casey left defenders trailing and a clever ball inside was controlled by McDonald, who advanced inside and curled the ball into the corner past the keepers despairing dive. The fiery striker was obviously buzzing at this point and his over-exuberance in the challenge led to him being booked not long after his second goal.

There were more chances for the Clarets as the half progressed, while Sergeant was untested at the other end. Craig brought a fine save from the keeper after the winger had shown some good footwork in the box. Jay Rodriguez also had a good opportunity as he was sent clear by a fantastic Akbar through ball, but he blasted over when he should have tested the keeper.

He quickly made amends for the miss though after some neat interplay throughout midfield ended with Craig whipping in a tantalising cross, which Rodriguez read perfectly, allowing him to clip it past the keeper to make it 3-0.

In the 2nd half Burnley stamped their authority on the game with a dominant display of solid defending and intelligent use of the ball. The wind meant long balls were pointless so we did what our visitors couldn't in the 1st half - we put the ball on the deck and passed short and controlled balls. This meant we were making quick breaks and they were seeing passes carried away on the wind.

We could have extended our lead early through a ferocious Akbar shot but had to wait until the 60th minute before making 4-0. Rodriguez capitalised on some defensive lapses to pick up the ball on the right wing. He had time and used it well, placing his cross directly on the head of the advancing McDonald, who powered in his hat trick header.

Over the next 20 minutes we continued to probe and used our three substitutes with Turner, Smith and U-16 defender Craig Lynch coming on to the field. The game became disjointed after these changes but we still pushed on and Adam Kay was unlucky to see a goal bound effort blocked on the line by a prone defender.

With around ten minutes to go we were denied a cast iron penalty as Jack Overson was first to the ball in the area and he took a nasty whack on the ankle. The porky linesman didn't see it – but I wasn't surprised as I used to work with him and always told him he'd make a crap official. Overson had to limp out of the action as a result of the challenge and we played out the remainder of the game with ten men, taking all three points in convincing fashion.

Team:- Jon Sergeant, Dale Underwood (Craig Lynch), Paul Casey, Jack Overson, Dean Stott, Ali Akbar, Lewis Craig, Ash Young, Adam Kay, Jay Rodriguez (Connor Smith), Alex McDonald (Rob Turner).