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With both teams seemingly unable to move out of first gear. Burnley, who had given Andrew Cole his first start since signing on loan in January and David Unsworth making his 500th career league appearance, started nervously, seemingly unable to get the ball on the floor to start playing the sort of football an Owen Coyle Burnley side have become known for.
With the ball in the air for most of the first 15 minutes, it was Colchester United that made the first move. In the 18th minute, an early cross from the left was met by a weak volley by the unmarked Clive Platt. With the shot leaving Jensen standing, the ball hit the post leaving the Clarets' defence feeling lucky to be level.
This seemed to spark Burnley into action immediately, with Alexander's long ball missing its target inside the area, the ball's bounce surprised Chris Coyne who could only knock the ball into the path of a pouncing Cole, who showed the natural striker's instinct that has helped him score so many goals over the years.
The game started to fizzle out a little after the goal, but as both teams started to settle, the chances came again. Throughout the first half, the game was interrupted frequently by some decisions the referee made. To call these 'dubious' would be an understatement. One of these said decision came when Colchester were awarded a free kick 20 yards from goal. As Johnnie Jackson hit it, the ball deflected off the wall and wrong footed Jensen, equalising for the U's.
Almost immediately, the Clarets won a free kick down the other end. A cleverly taken free kick by Robbie Blake, surprised everyone, including the crowd, but ended in hitting the bottom of Dean Gerken's post. After the match, I was told that the 'keeper actually managed to tip the ball onto the post as it was going in.
The halftime whistle went, with all sides of the Turf in frustrated mumble, hoping that the Clarets performance would improve in the second half.
Right from the off, you could see Colchester stepping back and looking to keep the result at one apiece and because of that everyone in claret and blue started to become frustrated. With that, Coyle made his first change. Surprising most in the ground, Caldwell came into the action, as Joey Gudjonsson came off. Caldwell slotted into the centre of defence with Harley stepping up into the void midfield.
The referee, one Steve Bratt started to take centre stage once again in the second half, with free kicks seemingly given every time some contact was made between two players. With Burnley not creating nearly enough chances, the second change was made. Ade Akinbiyi, who had lost his place to Andrew Cole, came on for Robbie Blake. Burnley started to look like the side that had played well at the Hawthorns, with some good link up between Cole and Ade.
With this, our third and final substitution was made. Young gunner Mark Randall came onto the field for a tired looking Jimmy O'Connor. Following this, the game saw a major incident. A clever turn by Akinbiyi saw him through on goal in the penalty area, 10 yards out. With the U's defender seemingly pulling his shirt off his back, Ade pulled his shot across goal. I was able to see it from my vantage point, so how the assistant and referee couldn't see it from 10 or 20 yards away is beyond me.
18 year old Randall showed some very good touches and was unlucky that his shot at the death could only trickle into the goalkeeper's hands.
As the full time whistle went, there were not too many boos coming from the terraces, for which I think was due to the fact that it was 'just one of those days' for the Clarets. Hopefully there won't be too many more.