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| Late winner from Jamie Frost |
I opted to travel by local transport, using the X43 into town and then the 152 up to Memorial Park in Padiham. I hadn't taken into account the fact that it would be almost half an hour on the second bus from Burnley bus station to the Mitre but eventually it got through the chaos and I was there in plenty of time.
The Burnley team was not what I'd envisaged. I thought players such as Tom Anderson, Luke Conlan, Cameron Howieson and Steven Hewitt might all be involved but most of these players were sat in the stand behind me, and in better seats, as it turned out during the second half, than I'd chosen.
I enjoy my trips to the Arbories. Padiham Football Club have been good to Clarets Mad over the years and I'm always happy to support them, although three visits in a week is a bit much. I was there last Saturday for the youth game and, after last night, I'm going again on Saturday for their opening league game against Spennymoor Town.
Padiham are a different proposition now than in previous years. Having won promotion a year ago they are a much stronger outfit and for our young team I suspected this would be a big test, and so it proved.
We might have gone behind in the opening minutes but two openings were not taken by our hosts. One effort went wide and the other was saved easily by Danijel Nizic.
But it was Burnley who took the lead on 10 minutes when a Luke Daly cross was headed into his own goal at the cricket field end by a Padiham defender. That led to a decent spell for us but it all went wrong midway through the half with two controversial decisions.
On 25 minutes, Padiham broke. Up went the assistant's flag for offside, and observers at that end confirm he got the decision absolutely correct. Initially I thought the referee had not seen the raised flag as Padiham found the net, but he then clearly indicated he was ignoring the assistant's decision despite being in no position to make a decision himself.
This over officious referee continued with the controversy seven minutes later when he awarded Padiham a somewhat dubious free kick not too far outside our box. Nizic saved the kick but didn't hold it and the rebound was turned in to give the home side the lead, one they retained until the half time whistle.
Anything they could do, then so could we, and on 50 minutes we were level when we got ourselves our own free kick. Luke Daly took it from just outside the box, curled it round the wall and into the corner.
Eight minutes later saw Padiham get their third, a good finish from just outside the box, and that's when the weather decided to turn nasty. Concentrating on the game became difficult as spectators scurried for shelter as the rain started to pour down.
"This won't last long," I said bravely from my seat on the front row. It went worse, it went much, much worse and so the scurrying continued as I forced my way past some of our young players on the back row towards some empty seats.
Secure in a dry seat for the closing stages, and it went our way. With nine minutes to go we were level again. The Padiham goalkeeper saved a shot from substitute Ntumba Massanka but it allowed Jason Gilchrist an easy header.
It was then a matter of whether we would win it and we did just that in the very last minute. A Christian Hill shot was blocked and there was Jamie to add the Frost to the Downpour, blasting into the net to win it for us.
The Burnley team was: Danijel Nizic, Callum Richardson, Shaun Hobson, Alex Whitmore, Christian Hill, Gboly Ariyibi, Brandon Wilson, Luke Daly, Jadan Hall, Jason Gilchrist, Jamie Frost. Subs used: Waqas Azam, Evan Galvin, Ntumba Massanka.