Luton next for cup winning Clarets

The Clarets had wind advantage in the first half and they made it pay, but not before an early scare in the opening minutes when we let the visitors in for an early chance. We managed to scramble it clear and from then on we dominated virtually all of the first half.

Conditions were bad for the defenders, twice we came very close to scoring direct from a corner, and twice the visiting keeper, kicking the ball out of his hands, saw it sail out of the ground and almost onto the Padiham to Nelson bypass.

We needed to make things count in the first half and we did just that, scoring three times to give us what looked to be a match winning lead. Jay Rodriguez got the first with a superb strike from the left, cutting in to give the goalkeeper no chance.

Rob Turner doubled the advantage after good work by Chris Anderson on the right hand side. His ball in was met by Rodriguez and it dropped for Turner to get down and head home well.

Burnley were dominating now and you sensed more goals were on the cards, and number three duly arrived despite the protests from the Franchise defenders that there was an offside. Rodriguez stroked the ball home as the keeper turned to shout some words of encouragement to the assistant referee. “That decision was ******* bollocks,” screamed the central defender to which the assistant replied, “It wasn't bollocks and it wasn't offside.” He'd got the decision right, it wasn't even close to offside and at this point Franchise weren't close to making any sort of game of it.

That changed shortly before half time when out of the blue they pulled a goal back and then incredibly nearly added a second with the post coming to our rescue. That was 3-1 at half time, and most spectators made for the bar to get warm, although we are assured that two regular Burnley fans did order extra cold lager.

It was clear we wouldn't have things quite so much our own way in the second half, and we certainly could have done without conceding a goal early in the half. We did though, just recall Birmingham's recent freak equaliser on the Turf, this one was similar.

Virtually half of the game left, playing against the weather, we were in for a battle, and how we came through strongly and won it. There were times when it was a close run thing, they hit balls into our box and put us under some pressure but we continued to hold on.

We could have even got ourselves a fourth, but substitute Alex McDonald couldn't quite find the target with an effort just after coming on as a replacement for Anderson.

With 90 minutes on the clock we still led 3-2, but then they scored what I thought was an equaliser right on time, an equaliser that would have taken the tie into extra time. It looked to be a foul on the goalkeeper to me but as I screamed for a free kick I looked and saw the assistant flagging for offside.

Almost immediately the referee blew for time to see us through to a tie with Luton, which hopefully will be played in better weather conditions than the ones we had to overcome tonight.

Well done to all of the lads, but a special mention now for Tom Blackler who has been ruled out for some time with injury. I spoke to Tom before the game tonight, and things aren't going too well for him. I'm sure not one of the victorious team will mind if on their behalf I dedicate this win to Tom.

The teams were;

Burnley: Jon Sergeant, Dean Stott (Ben Hoskin), Jack Overson, Chris Lynch, Paul Casey, Chris Anderson (Alex McDonald), Connor Smith, Adam Kay, Alex-Ray Harvey, Jay Rodriguez, Rob Turner (Ali Akbar). Subs not used: Ash Young, Lewis Craig.

Franchise: Laurie Walker, Adam Kent, Sam Collins, Tom Williams, Sam Phillips, Oliver Thorne, Liam Kelly, Tom Battams, Daniel Powell, Daniel Delderfield, Stephane Koffi. Subs: Ashley Ferguson, Troy Bailey-Goss, Adam Chicksen, Kurt Fox.