Beast to the rescue

Last updated : 26 April 2009 By Tony Scholes
Clarke Carlisle
Clarke Carlisle - scored the second equaliser
We came away from St. Mary's, the home of relegated Southampton, with a point from a 2-2 draw but it could, and should, have been worse than that and would have been but for the performance in goal of the man in the number 12 jersey Brian Jensen.

He turned in a simply outstanding display behind a side that otherwise looked more than a bit off sorts with very few good individual performances and some rank bad ones.

A trouble free journey down included lunch in Winchester before we arrived in Southampton well ahead of kick off. Outside the stadium there were plenty of home fans with buckets collecting for their club. Maybe they should have set up some side stalls with duck shooting at £1 a go. They didn't seem to be collecting too much from the visiting fans though.

Inside and they wheeled out Lawrie McMenemy to ask people to dip into their pockets and he was accompanied on the pitch by a number of former Saints players, one of whom took me back to one of our top 1960s sides. That was Brian O'Neil, it was good to see him but I have to report he was limping very badly.

Burnley, hardly surprisingly, named the same eleven that had beaten Sheffield United with the same five substitutes. All we needed now was another Sheffield United performance and surely the season would be extended. Unfortunately we got something closer to the performances we have given this season against Sheffield Wednesday.

We started poorly, and the game was only a few minutes old when Owen Coyle switched things round with Wade Elliott going on the right, Chris Eagles switching to the left and Robbie Blake going central.

It made no difference and it was no big surprise when Southampton took the lead, probably the only surprise was that it took them eleven minutes. We'd not stamped any authority on the game, we were allowing them to run at us and we were very hesitant in defence.

They got through us so easily down our left and although Bradley Wright-Phillips' shot was deflected there was no denying that Southampton deserved to go in front.

Over the next twenty minutes Southampton should have put us out of sight and should still have been fighting to avoid finishing in the bottom three, but a combination of poor finishing and top goalkeeping kept the score at 1-0.

Jensen had already made one good save before that opening goal, but he made at least four more with the score at 1-0 with two of them his trademark one-on-one saves. Twice they got clear with Burnley fans howling for an offside flag, but the Beast was the winner on both occasions. A look at them from the side has since shown that Rhys Williams played them onside both times.

Struggling at the bottom, not getting the lead you should do, and you know what's going to happen. And it did. Martin Paterson was released down the left hand side and he was brought down by Jan-Paul Saeijs. It was a clear penalty, and just as clear was Graham Alexander's finish.

1-1. We were out of jail and now surely we would step things up. Unfortunately not, and it was Southampton who scored again just ahead of half time. The full back came past Chris Eagles with the Clarets midfielder initially just letting him go. That proved costly as he got the ball in for Jason Euell to shoot. Jensen made yet another top save but he could do nothing about the rebound as David McGoldrick restored the lead.

The half time talk was of how fortunate we were to be only one goal behind, it really had been that bad and I think we have to go back to August to remember anything quite so poor. Not many came out of the first half with much credit whilst poor Eagles and Williams were having complete nightmares.

It was no surprise when one of them didn't reappear. Jay Rodriguez came on for Eagles with Blake going back onto the left. Williams however remained.

We started better with Elliott causing them some problems down our right. From one cross w won a corner and from that Chris McCann, another to be very disappointing, forced a good save from Kelvin Davis with a header.

There was no real sign of us getting on top though and soon after the game should have been all but over. Williams, in what was his last action of the game, ridiculously decided to tug Euell's shirt and referee Jones had absolutely no decision to make, another clear penalty.

Thankfully McGoldrick's spot kick was almost Berbatov it was that poor, and Jensen saved easily, just seconds after I'd noted that he does better in shoot outs than with penalties during games.

Michael Duff came on for the beleaguered loanee and over the next ten to fifteen minutes we produced our best, in fact probably our only, football of the afternoon.

It all started with a free kick on the left hand side expertly played in by Robbie Blake. But it was a Southampton head that got to it first but as the ball dropped it eventually fell nicely for Clarke Carlisle who hammered it home with a left foot shot from about four yards out.

Incredibly I now believed we could win this and two minutes later that's exactly what we should have done. A Southampton defender completely missed his kick on the half way line and let Rodriguez in. He sprinted down with Paterson supporting him.

A pass across to Paterson looked the best option but Jay hurried his shot and hit it straight at goalkeeper Davis. Fortunately it came back to him but again he hit it at Davis and as he chased the loose ball the keeper was able to get back and collect.

Soon after Robbie hit a screamer that was heading into the top corner, but Chris Perry miraculously got a head to it to keep it out at the expense of a corner.

Surely we were going to do it now, but it wasn't the case and for the last ten minutes and more we dropped deeper and allowed Southampton to come at us, appearing to be happy enough with a point.

And a point it was as it all ended 2-2, the final whistle bringing with it a Turf Moor style end of season pitch invasion that was starting to turn ugly as we left. With Swansea having lost they were out of it, but there was bad news on the way home with Preston coming from behind to win at Birmingham.

Absolutely no doubt who the man of the match was. I thought Christian Kalvenes and Wade Elliott were our best outfield players, but not for the first time this season Brian Jensen was the top man and there is no doubt in my mind he rescued a point.

A note about the referee: The Football League confirmed that Peter Walton would referee the game but some late changes saw Michael Jones take charge. The reason was simple. Jones was initially given the Bournemouth v Grimsby game, but because that game could affect Chester City's future and because Jones is from Chester he was moved a few miles down the south coast to Southampton.

And also a word about our magnificent fans yesterday. Over 2,000 Clarets inside St. Mary's willing us to get that win. The support was fantastic from first minute to last. It was fantastic to be in the middle of it.

For Burnley though it is simple. Only a win is good enough next week, anything else and we'll have to look over our shoulders and we could do without having to do that. We were two and a half minutes or so from Wembley in the Carling Cup and that Preston goal could mean we missed the play offs by a couple of minutes. Let's not allow that to happen.

Come on you Clarets.

The teams were;

Southampton: Kelvin Davis, Lloyd James, Jan-Paul Saeijs, Chris Perry, Andrew Surman, Alex Lallana (Ryan Smith 77), Paul Wotton, Simon Gillett (Marek Saganowski 72), David McGoldrick (Morgan Schneiderlin 90), Bradley Wright-Phillips, Jason Euell. Subs not used: Tommy Forecast, Zoltan Liptak.
Yellow Cards: Paul Wotton, David McGoldrick, Chris Perry, Jan-Paul Saeijs.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Rhys Williams (Michael Duff 63), Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Christian Kalvenes, Graham Alexander, Chris Eagles (Jay Rodriguez 45), Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake, Martin Paterson (Joey Gudjonsson 83). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Kevin McDonald.
Yellow Cards: Martin Paterson, Graham Alexander, Steven Caldwell.

Referee: Michael Jones (Chester).

Attendance: 23,927 (including 2,057 Clarets).