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North End won 2-0 and to be honest it could have been more as the Clarets failed to create any sort of pressure. It is hard to believe that they would have scored had we played until midnight despite the star studded line up.
The Burnley team was littered with first team names and to be honest some of these players should be hanging their heads in shame after this dreadful effort. Some of our younger players have battled all season to get themselves in with a chance of the title only to have to sit and watch the more senior players throw it all away for them.
The main stand at the Giant Axe affords a wonderful view of Lancaster Castle whilst train spotters can keep a check on the Virgin trains that actually do make it this far north from London Euston and at times we were thankful for the view to take our minds away from the goings on down on the pitch.
The first half was dire stuff and it has to be stressed that the pitch was bad and almost impossible to control a ball on. Poor Luigi Cennamo was having some difficulties in dealing with back passes and on more than one occasion put kicks straight out of play. This was to ultimately cost Lui his place and that led to us going behind.
We had only two real efforts in the first half. The first came on ten minutes when Gareth Taylor showed that his strength is in the air by blazing over with his feet. The second came right on half time when a delightful through ball from Tony Grant (this was in the 44th minute and was probably his first positive contribution) found Robbie Blake but his effort wasn't good enough and Lucas in the Preston goal was able to get a touch on it and it rolled agonisingly wide for a corner.
The major highlight of the first half came off the pitch on the side opposite the stand where Stan Ternent had chosen a standing view. Suddenly a skirmish started with Stan very much involved. It looked to be getting a bit ugly but was eventually calmed down. We were told at half time that Stan was getting some abuse from some Nob End fans that he took exception to. The scenes were reminiscent of his efforts at Hillsborough at the first game of the season when a Sheffield Wednesday fan tried to attack Paul Cook.
To be fair Preston had offered little but they were by far the better side, their best effort saw Luigi Cennamo make an excellent save around five minutes before the break.
Cennamo was substituted at half time, presumably because of his problems kicking. That being the case it is a shame because he had been put under pressure by his defenders. Ironically his replacement James Salisbury gifted Preston the lead just five minutes into the second half with a throw out that was difficult to explain.
Preston's very impressive Sadio Sow run onto it and made no mistake. That was it, there was never any chance of us coming back and despite seeing a lot of the ball there never looked to be any danger of us equalising.
In fact with ten minutes to go Preston wrapped it up with a goal from Pawell Abbott who took advantage of poor defending from Steve Davis to make it 2-0.
It was a disappointing night but my sympathies are with those players who have been regulars this season who have missed out on a championship that really we should have been winning this evening. It's not to be and it goes to Deepdale.
There were just 242 there to see it but if clubs decide to move reserve team games out of town what else can they expect. Clarets Mad have tried hard this season to lift the profile of our reserves and youths and would love to see bigger crowds at the Turf for reserve team games.
That's it for this season and well done to the young lads in the reserves and to Jeppo for some very enjoyable games.
The teams tonight were:
Preston North End: David Lucas, Patrick Quinn, Adam Eaton, Erik Skora, Paul Reid, Darren Kempson, Sadio Sow, Brian Barry-Murphy, Pawell Abbott, John Bailey, Mark Wright. Subs not used: Joe O'Neill, Ricky Mercer, Kelvin Langmead, Mark Cromwell, George Curwen.
Burnley: Luigi Cennamo (James Salisbury 45), Mark McGregor, Graham Branch, Gordon Armstrong, Steve Davis, Lenny Johnrose, Glen Little, Tony Grant (Andrew Waine 68), Gareth Taylor, Robbie Blake, Brad Maylett (Matthew O'Neill 58). Subs not used: Mark Rasmussen, Earl Davis.