Struggle for youths as they go down in the first match

With a shortage of players throughout the club it was no surprise to find that Pashley had to name three schoolboys in his starting line up. Already without Richard Chaplow and Paul Scott on first team duty his squad was further depleted with Rhys Carpenter, Neal Trotman, Adam Jones, Robert Grimes and Gary Carter all out injured.

This left us with just two second year scholars, Danny Pitham and Ryan Townsend, six first years scholars and three schoolboys from the centre of excellence.

The young Clarets lined up (in 4-4-2): Michael Hale, Ross Preston, Danny Pitham, Ryan Townsend (captain), James Heywood, Marc Pugh, Darrell Avery, Joe Booth, Tom Ince, Kane Hanley, Liam Tomlinson.

Tranmere have had a strong side at this level for a number of years and nothing on show this morning suggested there was set to be any change. They were in front on 14 minutes from the spot after Pitham had given away a penalty. Hale went the right way but had no hope of stopping the powerful shot into the corner. We could have gone further ahead but for some outstanding saves from goalkeeper Hale, who at 16 is already beginning to look a tremendous prospect.

The Clarets, with two of the younger players up front, were struggling to make any inroads as the temperatures soared and although we worked hard and had some reasonable possession we were perhaps fortunate to be just a goal behind at half time.

Coach Pashley held his half time team talk under the trees to give the lads some respite from the sun but it didn’t give us a boost unfortunately for the second half as Tranmere stepped it up.

They added three more in the second half as the Clarets tired and it has to be said that their finishing was first class as the Clarets failed to make any real impact during the second 45 minutes.

So it is a heavy defeat to start the season but this was not a disastrous performance, just an inexperienced side coming up against a stronger, older and much more experienced Tranmere outfit.

In fact Pashley can be happy with his team this morning who stuck to their task well and offered some promise that with some of the more experienced players back it can in fact be a decent season for them.