Ice cool Frost clinches cup win

Last updated : 08 October 2013 By Tony Scholes
Jamie Frost scored the last penalty

And it was the youngest Burnley player on the pitch, Jamie Frost, who celebrated his 17th birthday two days ago, who stepped up to take the ninth and last penalty in front of the Jimmy McIlroy Stand to earn us a trip to Crewe.

I'd like to say it ended what had been a pulsating evening of football but that would be far removed from the truth. The first ninety minutes offered, at times, some turgid stuff, with only a small noisy section of Burnley supporters offering much in the way of entertainment.

It was quite difficult at times to work out who was playing where but I struggled to get my head round Jason Gilchrist, a prolific goalscorer, playing in a wide midfield position. There was precious little to enthuse about with the two goalkeepers having an easy night of it.

No one could have been surprised to see the game still goalless after 90 minutes, although Burnley did look the more likely, and the same could be said as we reached half time in extra time.

However, anyone walking into the ground around 9:15 and seeing the remaining quarter of an hour might not have believed what had gone on before. All the entertainment on show came in this period with both sides coming close to breaking the deadlock.

Twice Wigan got in efforts that beat goalkeeper Alex Cisak but both times we cleared off the line, only inches away from goal line technology territory. The first from Frost was a fine clearance; the second from Alex Coleman, playing at right back, was exceptional.

But the main action was at the other end where the Clarets came close several times. Frost curled one just wide from the edge of the box and then substitute Luke Gallagher, and it was Gallagher and not Jack Errington as announced, was brought down.

With just minutes remaining we finally got a wonderful piece of football, a superb passing move that let in Brian Stock. He looked a certain scorer but his shot went agonisingly wide.

The Coleman clearance followed that and soon after came the final whistle to signal penalties with Wigan to go first.

Wigan's Adam Buxton missed the first one and Steven Hewitt followed that by hammering against the underside of the bar before the ball dropped into the net. So 1-0 to us and that became 2-1 as both teams scored, Stock getting ours.

Wigan scored but Gallagher saw his penalty saved for 2-2 and then we both missed, Kevin Long hitting the bar for us.

That was 2-2 after four penalties each, but after that both sides found their range scoring from each of the next four penalties, ours from Luke Conlan, Archie Love, Tom Anderson and Coleman.

Finally, it was all decided. Cisak saved from Mayowa Balogun and that left young Frost to win it for us.

The teams were;

Burnley: Alex Cisak, Alex Coleman, Kevin Long, Tom Anderson, Luke Conlan, Steven Hewitt, Archie Love, Brian Stock, Jason Gilchrist (Luke Gallagher 88), Ryan Noble, Jamie Frost. Subs not used: Conor Mitchell, Jack Errington, Kyle Brownhill, Brad Jackson.

Wigan: Lee Nicholls, Adam Buxton, Mayowa Balogun, Rob Kiernan, Josh Langley, Ryan Meadows, Declan Poole (Sam Cosgrove 84), Daniel Redmond (Luke Ainscough 72), Nouha Dicko, Guillermo Andres (Matthew Hamilton 78), Joey Johnson. Subs not used: Thomas Anderson, Michael Wilson.