We were greeted with a white pitch that was on the verge of freezing with some snow still flowing but it was given the go ahead and the players gave us an entertaining game that at least allowed us to forget about the cold.
Danny Coyne had another outing in goal but other than that it was a young side that took the field against a Manchester United side that was not a strong as the one we had played earlier in the season at Hyde.
I think it must be noted at this point that, despite recent ridiculous speculation, there was no sign of striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on either side.
The first half was competitive but without too much goal action although both sides could have scored. Certainly Coyne was called upon to make a couple of saves and at the other end we had a goal disallowed before Alex Taylor came close when he shot just wide from a Marc Pugh cross.
If that first half had been enjoyable then the players really warmed us up as the temperatures dropped during the second half and we were very much the better side against our supposed more illustrious opponents.
We really should have taken the lead just after the hour but the previously excellent Marc Pugh fluffed the best chance of the match when he headed a Paul Scott cross wide from point blank range.
It was a bad miss from the Bacup youngster and we paid the price almost immediately when United went in front against the run of play. The ball dropped nicely for Dave Jones in the box after a good exchange of passes and he placed the ball over the onrushing Coyne.
The Clarets then pushed for an equaliser and it is hard to believe that it didn’t come, but the United defence just about held out with a couple of good saves and a block right on the line before they almost put through their own goal.
As a
As the snow started to fall again the fourth official held the board up for three extra minutes just as Chris McCann hit a shot against the post. You just wondered had that gone in whether we could have got another and the answer could well have been yes as we swept forward again to win a penalty after Tom Ince was brought down.
Pugh’s effort was saved but we did get the consolation when he followed up to hit in the rebound but there was no more time and we suffered our first home defeat (if Accrington can really be considered as home) of the season.
The teams were,
Burnley: Danny Coyne, Joel Pilkington, Neal Trotman, Ryan Townsend, Paul Scott, Marc Pugh, Nicky Platt (Martin Reilly 66), Joe Booth (Tom Ince 84), Chris McCann, Alex Taylor, Cayne Hanley. Subs not used: Mark Crossley,
Manchester United: Tom Heaton, Floribert Ngalula, Michael Lea, Phil Bardsley, Mark Howard, David Jones, Phil Marsh (Kyle Moran 87), Markus Neumayr (David Gray 72), Ben Collett, Mads Timm, Ramon Calliste. Subs not used: Lee Crockett, Sean Evans, Aaron Burns.
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