Burnley pay the penalty

Last updated : 07 November 2013 By Tony Scholes

It was hard to take. Despite making four changes to the team that had beaten QPR on Saturday, we had done well, particularly in the first half, and maybe would have taken the game to extra time at least without the intervention of referee Bobby Madley who for the second time in his two visits to Turf Moor ended the game as the centre of attention.

Last season he ridiculously sent off Kieran Trippier while awarding an early penalty to Charlton in a game we went on to lose 1-0, although they did miss the penalty. Last night he followed his brother's antics by awarding a penalty against Jason Shackell for a supposed foul on Kevin Nolan that has been questioned from all quarters.

Sean Dyche suggested he didn't even have a view to give the penalty; Shackell looked totally bemused as the referee pointed to the spot and then presented him with his fourth yellow card of the season, but West Ham took full advantage with Matt Taylor hammering home the spot kick.

Kieran Trippier came closest to a goal for Burnley with a free kick that hit the bar

The second of them was more clear cut and the only question there was whether he was right to send off Keith Treacy. I've long lost the idea that I actually understand the law but Dyche accepted that Treacy, who has only just come back into the side, had to go.

Jack Collison converted that one deep into stoppage time but by the game was up and maybe Treacy would have just been better advised to let them have the second goal without the need for the spot kick.

Dyche made four changes to the team that had played three days earlier. David Edgar and Brian Stock came into the midfield positions for the injured Dean Marney and suspended David Jones; Kevin Long and Junior Stanislas replaced Michael Duff and Michael Kightly who were rested and given a place on the bench.

Scott Arfield was again ruled out with Treacy continuing for virtually the whole of the game prior to that late dismissal which is his first since he was sent off playing for Preston in a defeat at Derby in October 2010, that one too coming in stoppage time.

The lack of experienced players gave Steven Hewitt and Cameron Howieson an opportunity where Nick Liversedge was also named rather than regular second choice goalkeeper Alex Cisak.

The first half was all Burnley and West Ham were thankful to former Real Betis goalkeeper Adrián for keeping them level. We were so dominant at times you wouldn't have realised it was a much changed midfield as we took the game to the Premier League club right from the start.

His first save was to deny Stanislas a goal against his former club. He'd have enjoyed that given the unnecessary snide remarks made by Sam Allardyce about him after the game. His low shot looked to be heading for the bottom corner before Adrián was able to turn it away for a corner from which the goalkeeper was forced to make an equally good save to deny Danny Ings.

If there was any cause to be critical about our first half performance then we didn't really create enough goalscoring opportunities although we did beat the goalkeeper on one occasion when Sam Vokes headed against the post only to see the assistant referee flagging for offside.

There was an air of confidence in the stand at half time. It was still 0-0 but we'd been the better team by far and, with the belief in the team right now, there was no reason to suggest we wouldn't go on and win it.

West Ham changed things in the second half with three substitutions. The first of them saw Collison come on at the start of the half and he was eventually followed by Stewart Downing and Kevin Nolan.

They enjoyed their best spell of the game during the first fifteen minutes of the half and they got the ball in the net through Joe Cole who was also correctly flagged offside.

But it was us who came closest to a goal when Kieran Trippier hammered a free kick against the bar and at that point I really thought we might give it a real go and go on and win it.

That's when Nolan came on and just a few minutes later he won the penalty. I'm not so sure he won it and more than Shackell gave it away. This one was another Madley occasion that are now becoming all too frequent.

He's got it wrong; just as he did last season and just as his equally error prone brother got it wrong at Derby when he too gave a penalty against Shackell. What wasn't in doubt was Taylor's emphatic finish, although Tom Heaton did get a touch on it, and us having to chase the game.

The closest we came was a Vokes header but it was a simple save from the goalkeeper and then, in the fourth minute of stoppage time came the second spot kick.

It was a long booted clearance from Nolan. Kevin Long slipped and that allowed West Ham in. Out came Heaton but he arrived only in time to knock the ball towards Collison.

He advanced into the box where he was brought down by Treacy. With Shackell on the line I really thought it would be a yellow card but out came the red and Treacy had to go while Collison got up and scored the second penalty.

Time was up for Burnley but the 14,000 plus crowd weren't beaten and the chants of support were ringing around Turf Moor as the fans let the players know we were still top of the league.

A cup exit I'm afraid but still a lot to play for this season starting at Millwall on Saturday. I love cup runs but they always come to an end, but overall we did well last night and hopefully now we'll get some players back for The Den.

The teams were;

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Kevin Long, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Keith Treacy, David Edgar (Ryan Noble 90+2), Brian Stock, Junior Stanislas (Michael Kightly 84), Danny Ings, Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Nick Liversedge, Michael Duff, Danny Lafferty, Steven Hewitt, Cameron Howieson.
Yellow Card: Jason Shackell.
Red Card: Keith Treacy.

West Ham: Adrián, Pelly Ruddock, James Tomkins (Kevin Nolan 71), Joey O'Brien, Leo Chambers, Joe Cole, Matt Taylor, Mohamed Diamé (Jack Collison ht), Dan Potts, Carlton Cole (Stewart Downing 59), Modibo Maiga. Subs not used: Raphael Spiegel, Ravel Morrison, Dylan Tombides, Matthias Fanimo.

Referee: Bobby Madley (Ossett).

Attendance: 14,376.