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| The Academica players some three minutes after the goal |
The game was getting a bit tasty and the referee had just about had enough. "If that's how you want it I'll start using my cards," he said to one player an immediately waved his yellow card at him.
Straight from that free kick, Burnley got down the left hand side and won a soft free kick. Out came the yellow again as the alert Alex-Ray Harvey asked the referee if we could take a quick free kick. When he said yes, Harvey scored, and that's when the fun started.
There was no way they were going to accept that and all eleven players remained in their goalmouth whilst Burnley prepared for the restart. Eventually the ball was retrieved by a Burnley player and placed on the centre spot but that only prompted the arrival of another ball kicked on from the sidelines.
Some three minutes after the goal, the referee blew for time with just under 19 minutes of the second half gone. He, his assistants, left along with players and spectators and although there has apparently been a restart, with no referee, the result must remain at 1-0 given that there was no referee for anything that might have happened afterwards.
Prior to that, Burnley had played some decent football without causing them too many problems, but too often the challenges, given it was a friendly, were a bit unnecessary. The referee struggled throughout although I don't think anyone ever envisaged such a farcical end.
No matter what, for a professional football club this was nothing short of a disgrace. The coaches were no better than the players and whatever the performance of the referee this sort of thing should not be allowed to happen.
Burnley's team was: Josh Cook, Anthony Glover, Neil Yadolahi (Aryn Williams 45), Alex Coleman (Tom Anderson 45), Dave Lynch, Joe McKee, Steven Hewitt (Chris Anderson 45), Alex-Ray Harvey, Mehdi Lazaar (Sol Ofia 13), Dominic Knowles, Ross Wilson.