An hour or so before kick off it looked as though it was going to be a difficult afternoon for spectators with the rain coming down and a cold wind but by the time the referee blew his first whistle the wind had dropped, the rain had ceased and Gawthorpe was back to its best.
The Clarets started well against a tough looking
Wigan were getting a lot of possession but it was the Clarets who were looking the more dangerous and midway through the first half went in front when the ball was played well through the midfield.
It found Tom Ince on the left hand side of the box and he cleverly sidestepped the keeper before hitting the ball into the empty net.
Ryan Townsend, who until last night had occupied the first team bench all season, found himself again a substitute this afternoon but shortly after the goal he came on with McCann moving into midfield to take the place of the substituted Darrell Avery.
After an initial flurry from
McCann nearly got it too but his superb shot rebounded off the inside of the post with the
The referee, down the left hand side of the field, was suddenly alerted to his assistant on the other side waving his flag furiously. The referee appeared to give a free kick but the assistant continued to flag until the referee came over and spoke to him.
After a discussion the referee called over a Wigan player and
It wasn’t clear why they had been sent off but we later learned that the
Joe Booth, again in good form in midfield, made no mistake from the penalty spot and
The game changed though after the Clarets made a double substitution that seemed to upset the balance of the side and
It paid off when they were also awarded a penalty against Rob Henry with Michael Hale having no chance with the spot kick.
They went in search of an equaliser and it looked to have come in the dying minutes but Trotman made the most amazing goal line clearance to keep the Clarets in front.
That was just about it and when the whistle brought it to an end it signalled a second successive win for Burnley and the tenth point from the first five games of the season.
The Burnley team was: Michael Hale, Rob Henry, Neal Trotman, Chris McCann (Nicky Platt), Martin Reilly, Marc Pugh, Darrell Avery (Ryan Townsend), Joe Booth, Tom Ince (Adam Jones), Cayne Hanley, Alex Taylor.
