16-0 in a week

Last updated : 23 August 2010 By Tony Scholes
Ross Wallace
Ross Wallace - his first Burnley goal gave us the lead
A 6-0 win against Oldham in the reserve league on Tuesday night and then a 7-0 victory at Gawthorpe yesterday morning against Accrington had set things up nicely before moving on to Turf Moor for the first team game.

The atmosphere down at the training ground was excellent. Whilst the youth team were playing, just to a short distance away there was a training session in progress, under the charges of development coach Ash Hoskin, involving the fringe players such as Richard Eckersley and Brian Easton, the suspended David Edgar, the development squad players and some of the youth players including Arun Williams (still unable to play as we await his international clearance) and Neil Yadolahi.

After a good few days watching the junior teams I hoped we wouldn't come crashing down to earth with the first team, and, thankfully, any fears I had were nothing more than that as, in the end, we won the game comfortably.

Brian Laws wasn't able to name un unchanged team from Ipswich because of Edgar's harsh suspension, but Tyrone Mears was fit enough again to take his place at right back after missing out on the trip to Portman Road, and so it was the team that played the bulk of the game against Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the season.

You always want to start games positively, but it was Leicester who stormed forward right from the kick off and perhaps could have taken the lead in the very first minute of the game. As they got down our right, Brian Jensen hesitated almost Wigan style, but this time he recovered and rescued the situation himself with a good save from Dany N'Guessan.

There were some concerns in those early minutes. Leicester did get through us too easily on more than one occasion and it looked as though we might be in for a difficult afternoon from a team that had finished last season in the play off positions.

Burnley answered in the best way possible, by scoring from a corner. Now, referee Geoff Eltringham, who at best could have been described as eccentric, hadn't read the script. He mustn't have been aware of last week's goal meaning we can now score goals from corners.

Andre Bikey stormed in to meet Ross Wallace's flag kick and powered in a header for what looked his second Burnley goal. Eltringham stood there indicated there had been some shirt pulling, apparently Martin Paterson on goalkeeper Chris Weale. The decision looked a very harsh one.

Leicester were still having some success against our defence, but they weren't really threatening us and unbeknown at the time they had already had their one and only effort on target.

Finally, we got into the game and for a period in the middle of the first half we started to move the ball well. There were some good play but it came to nothing although there was another big incident involving Bikey. As he came in to get on the end of another set piece he just about lost out to goalkeeper Weale who got the ball away.

I wouldn't want to tangle with Bikey in full throttle, and Weale came off the worst ultimately, having to be replaced by substitute goalkeeper Conrad Logan. Logan, now 24, has been with Leicester all his career but has played most of his first team football out on loan at various clubs.

As half time approached it looked, just as it had done in the first home game, to be heading for a 0-0 half time scoreline.

Now I'm not sure what it is about us right now, but we've developed the very good habit of scoring goals in stoppage time. There was Chris Iwelumo's right on half time against Forest and last week we had Clarke Carlisle's late equaliser at Ipswich that earned us a point.

We kept up the habit but it was somewhat fortuitous. Wallace collected the ball from Graham Alexander and went for a speculative effort from some distance outside the penalty box. He didn't really get hold of it although it was apparently on target and heading for the corner to the left of Logan.

That was until it took a big deflection of Joao Moreno had found its way into the net via Logan's right hand post with the goalkeeper getting his first touch of the game as he collected the ball from the back of the net.

It was a huge slice of luck to take into half time and whether it made any difference to the respective team talks is anyone's guess. At that time I was too busy welcoming back some of my real heroes to Turf Moor. Ralph Coates and Brian O'Neil, two wonderful players from the North East who graced Turf Moor on so many occasions. How warm was the reception for them, and how richly deserved it was.

I felt another goal might just see off this Leicester side. There was a brief, but unproductive, flurry from Leicester at the start of the second half and then we took control of the game.

Chris Iwelumo was always looking a threat, and it was he who got that vital second goal just after the break which owed a lot to Wade Elliott and Wallace. Elliott slipped but somehow was able to get the ball to Wallace. The winger got to the ball to the far post for Big Chris, the sort of cross that is like food and drink to him. He made no mistake as he doubled the lead and you wonder just how many goals he might get for us if we can continue to deliver balls into the box as we've done for his first two Burnley goals.

It was the last contribution for Wallace, and for Dean Marney, as Laws brought on Chris Eagles and Jack Cork. The bench is certainly looking strong these days and you wouldn't have been over concerned at the introduction of any of them.

Burnley were much the better side now and it was no surprise that we put the icing on the cake with a third. Eagles had looked good on his introduction, and when he weaved his way into the box he went down under a challenge from Leicester substitute Michael Larney.

I read on the message board that it was a poor decision, and elsewhere that it was a soft penalty. That's a nonsense; it was a clear foul and Larney knew it. Eltringham hardly had a decision to make.

I was on texting duty yesterday, and as the referee pointed to the spot I was tempted to send the 3-0 score. Let's face it, when Grezza steps up you have that level of confidence. I decided not to tempt fate, but it was no surprise that I was sending that very score a few seconds later as he made it 18 out of 18 from the spot for Burnley.

That was game over; I never thought Leicester would come back from one goal behind, let alone three, and the points were very definitely ours.

There was just time to learn that this week the man of the match decision was a correct one. Just as it had been two weeks earlier, it really couldn't have been anyone else but the imperious Bikey.

So, the week has come to an end. 16-0, it says so much about the direction our club is going, and having seen so many of our young players turn in such good performances in those first two games at reserve and youth level, it really was just what the doctor ordered to finish it off with a first team win.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney (Jack Cork 66), Martin Paterson, Chris Iwelumo (Steven Thompson 76), Ross Wallace (Chris Eagles 66). Subs not used: Lee Grant, Leon Cort, Kevin McDonald, Jay Rodriguez.
Yellow Cards: Dean Marney, Ross Wallace.

Leicester: Chris Weale (Conrad Logan 43), Neilson (Michael Larney 57), Joao Moreno, Jack Hobbs, Bruno Berner, Andy King, Matt Oakley (Franck Moussa 80), Richie Wellens, DJ Campbell, Steve Howard, Dany N'Guessan. Subs not used: Michael Morrison, Paul Gallagher, Leon Crncic.

Referee: Geoff Eltringham (Sunderland).

Attendance: 15,516.

Footnote

Burnley have an excellent home record, overall, against Leicester. This was our 26th home league game against them in post-war football. Fourteen of them have been won and only four have ended in defeat.

However, this was only Leicester's second Turf Moor defeat in over 34 years. We beat them 1-0 in the 2005/06 season with a goal from John Spicer but our previous home win against them was as far back as February 1976 when Keith Newton scored in a 1-0 win. All four of Leicester's wins have come during that period.