No joy for reserves

Last updated : 19 February 2004 By Tony Scholes

Marc Pugh - came closest to scoring for the Clarets
We’ve been stuck in the bottom two all season and that never changed all evening with a win needed to climb above Huddersfield Town.

Tonight’s game was never going to be a goal feast with neither side ever looking particularly capable of scoring and from our point of view that was hardly surprising given the fact that we didn’t have a forward on the pitch. Sheffield United looked no better and hardly played any football at all.

The highlight of the first half came when the game was held up after the assistant referee on the Bob Lord Stand side picked up an injury and had to be replaced by the fourth official. Despite having an ice pack applied to his calf the injured flag wave proceeded to pace up and down the touchline for the rest of the game whilst the 4th official duties appeared to have been given to a table which suddenly appeared on the touchline.

It is difficult to remember a single moment when either goalkeeper was troubled although Paul Rachubka, making his Turf Moor debut, did have one routine save to make and that was more than the Blades' keeper.

A nil-nil scoreline at half time was just about right and there was nothing to suggest that anything was going to change after the interval as it all followed the same pattern. We did at least get a couple of shots in but they failed to trouble the keeper.

It all looked to be heading for a draw when with just over a quarter of an hour to go the visitors took the lead. They floated in a free kick from the left and it was a forward who got to the ball first to head home into the corner to Rachubka’s left.

And a couple of minutes later they came close to adding a second but the post came to our rescue.

The Clarets couldn’t force themselves back into the game and eventually the referee brought the proceedings to an end with most of the 183 crowd looking mightily relieved.

To be fair, the build up play was at times fine but going into a game without a striker does make things somewhat difficult particularly given the goal scoring records of our midfielders.

The defeat leaves us next to bottom and with four more defeats than any other side in the division we are going to have a fight on to avoid relegation.

The teams were,

Burnley: Paul Rachubka, Dean West, Gary Carter, Ryan Townsend, Danny Pitham, Marc Pugh, Paul Weller, Bradley Orr (Darrell Avery 84), Tom Ince (Joe Booth 78), Luke Chadwick, Alan Moore. Sub not used: Michael Hale.

Sheffield United: Tom Lindley, Adrian Harper, Evan Horwood, Steve Jagielka, Chris Robertson, Dominic Roma, Ashley Sestanovich, Ian Ross, Billy Sharp (Colin Marrison 69), Jonathan Forte, Kevan Hurst. Subs not used: Rory Beanes, Ryan Gyaki, Daniel Platel, Travis Binnion.

Burnley’s Fixtures and Results

Current League Table