Reserves take a hammering

Last Updated : 03-Sep-2003 by

Michael Hale - his saves kept the score down to six
Injuries and a lack of players forced us to go into the game with only two full time professional players, Arthur Gnohere and Matt O’Neill, along with Nicky Summerbee who is currently on trial with us.

The rest of the side was made up of scholars and as many as five of them were new first years scholars who have only just arrived at the club this summer. It may well be experience for them but we are currently in a position where we cannot get a team on the field to compete at this level, not even against the likes of Barnsley a club who are currently still in administration.

We were behind as early as the fourth minute with a goal from Griff Jones and within 22 minutes the Barnsley player had completed a hat trick and the Clarets were a beaten side.

Steve Carson, on trial from Rangers, was doing much of the damage and he got himself on the scoresheet to make it 4-0 with only 33 minutes gone and Isaiah Rankin added number five just a couple of minutes later.

Not much had been seen of the Clarets although O’Neill had a couple of shots and Summerbee forced keeper Danny Alcock into a good save with a shot from whole of 35 yards.

The two experienced players Gnohere and Summerbee didn’t come out for the second half and this left us with O’Neill as the most experienced player to be replaced by our two newest recruits Joe Booth and Alex Taylor.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first but somehow thankfully the goals dried up somewhat and an Alex Neal goal was all Barnsley could add during that second forty five minutes.

We were thankful throughout the game for the saves from Michael Hale in goal that managed to keep the score down to six.

It gave the home side their first points of the season and left Burnley wondering where they might pick up a point with the side turning out so young. Our next game is at the Turf a week today when we take on Sheffield Wednesday.

The teams were:

Barnsley: Danny Alcock, Dave Mulligan, Paul Gibbs, Steve Hayward, Neil Austin Thomas Harban 62), Ryan Laight, Alex Niel, Kevin Dixon (Nicholas Wroe 70), Isaiah Rankin, Griff Jones (Carl Barrowclough 62), Steven Carson. Subs not used: Craig Parry, Nathan Joynes.

Burnley: Michael Hale, Danny Pitham, Neal Trotman, Arthur Gnohere (Joe Booth 45), Paul Scott, Nicky Summerbee (Alex Taylor 45), Ross Preston (Tom Ince 23), Darrel Avery, Marc Pugh, Damien Hindle, Matt O’Neill. Sub not used: Rhys Carpenter.

Reserves Fixtures and Results