Hopes had been lifted with the form just ahead of the break that had seen us win seven out of nine points as well as reaching the last sixteen in the Carling Cup, but any confidence gained from those results was certainly not evident against a very ordinary looking, but organised, Reading side.
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| Kieran Trippier - started well |
The day had started really well with a trip to Gawthorpe watching the youth team, and how enjoyable to get on over on North End who were sitting on top of the league at kick off. Stood next to an Irishman watching the game it was certainly a case of 'When Irish Eyes Are Smiling' as Newry boy Shay McCartan got two and Dubliner Adam Evans scored the winner.
That, hopefully, was to be the taster for another good 90 minutes at the Turf but sadly that didn't happen and having started the game brightly enough we faded and faded away until we could have no real complaints at losing the game even though the only goal did come in the ninth minute of stoppage time.
There were no surprises when Eddie Howe named his team. It was same again with the same five subs who had been on duty at Millwall in the previous game.
In the very first minute we had an opportunity as Marvin Bartley got clear but he shot early and it came to nothing. We were looking good down our right hand side where Kieran Trippier and Ross Wallace were linking up well, none more so than when Tripper fed Wallace who hit a screamer of a shot that went just over the bar. On target and Adam Federici would have got nowhere near it.
Trippier should have done better on one occasion when he got clear but his cross had too much on it. Just a few minutes later he got in a low cross that a defender managed to cut out at full stretch.
With around 20 minutes gone I received a text from someone unable to be at the game. "How we playing?" it read. At the time my reply was that we were just about the better side. I thought we were, but it wasn't to last much longer.
Soon after that we were fortunate to still be level and it was former Rotherham striker Adam Le Fondre causing us the problems. He got onto the ball after we'd allowed it to get beyond our defenders and, despite the angle, he forced Lee Grant into a good save.
If Grant did well there, he looked at fault just a few seconds later as he parried a ball right into the path of Le Fondre who made no mistake. Incredibly, as he turned to celebrate, the assistant's flag was up for offside. Yes, two Reading players were in offside positions but Le Fondre was onside and the goal should have stood.
It was an escape for the Clarets but it didn't spur us on and by half time it was Reading very much looking the brighter team although just before the break their goalkeeper Federici did well to tip over a deflected Wallace effort.
Still, 0-0 at half time and hopes high that we could get ourselves on top in the second half as we played the favoured way towards the Jimmy McIlroy end of the ground where 14 of our 20 home goals have been scored this season.
Unfortunately, it didn't happen and it was, in the main, an awful second half from Burnley. Eddie Howe made his one and only substitution just nine minutes in when Keith Treacy replaced the very out of touch Junior Stanislas who'd had no impact on the game. The introduction of Treacy did not improve things as the left winger offered precious little.
We did ask one question of Federici who got down well to deny Marvin Bartley his first Burnley goal but for the most part in this second half it looked odds on a 0-0 draw between two poor teams, although, make no mistake, Reading were the better of the two.
With around 68 minutes on the clock, the crowd were initially lifted by one of those funny moments in football, or so it seemed. Andre Amougou held off Jay Tabb to allow the ball to run back to Grant but his kick up field smashed Tabb in the face and down he went.
The crowd came to life initially before realising it could be serious as Tabb failed to move. Apparently he was unconscious for around 30 seconds as referee Phil Gibbs frantically called for medical assistance.
Tabb was taken to hospital but the good news is he's fine and was able to travel home with the Reading team. They manager Brian McDermott thanked our medical staff too for their assistance.
Jem Karacan replaced him and along with Mathieu Manset, who replaced the ineffective Simon Church with nine minutes to go, they ensured a difficult end to the game for Burnley.
Suddenly Reading looked as though they believed they could win it. By this time I was more than settling for a 0-0 draw given our chances of scoring a goal looked very remote. Now we were having some defending to do and at times we weren't doing it very well.
Did Amougou defend well when Le Fondre went down in the penalty box? Burnley say he did; Reading boss Brian McDermott suggested it was the most blatant penalty he'd seen in years. Having seen the re-run, I thought the assistant called it absolutely right. Amougou (that's Andre Amougou and not Adam Amougou as the BBC would have us believe) played the ball. There was no action due for Le Fondre who went down under the impact and the yellow card for ANDRE was correct given his reaction.
And after all that, we got to 90 minutes at 0-0 and awaited the board. With three stoppages in the first half the referee had settled for one minute (it should have been at least four) so with a stoppage of just under five minutes for Tabb we wondered whether he'd go as high as five. Incredibly up went a number nine.
Reading sensed victory and went for it. We held out for over 8 and a half minutes before one final piece of shambolic defending allowed Karacan to have an open goal some four or five yards out. He did not waste the opportunity.
It had an almost inevitable feel to it and we really could not complain. We played another two or three minutes without response and you have to say they were the team deserving of the points.
It seems we take a step forwards and then a couple back. There have been too many performances like this unfortunately which means the good performances and results are not able to achieve the move up the league they deserve.
The defeat has only seen us drop one place in the league and the next two league games are away from home. That's probably good news right now for a Burnley team who have won just once in eight home league games.
The teams were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Andre Amougou, David Edgar, Brian Easton, Ross Wallace, Marvin Bartley, Chris McCann, Junior Stanislas (Keith Treacy 55), Charlie Austin, Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Jon Stewart, Ben Mee, Dean Marney, Zavon Hines.
Yellow Cards: Kieran Trippier, Andre Amougou.
Reading: Adam Federici, Shaun Cummings, Kaspars Gorkss, Alex Pearce, Joseph Mills, Jobi McAnuff (Noel Hunt 45), Mikele Leigertwood, Jay Tabb (Jem Karacan 72), Hal Robson-Kanu, Simon Church (Mathieu Manset 81), Adam Le Fondre. Subs not used: Alex McCarthy, Ian Harte.
Yellow Card: Joseph Mills.
Referee: Phil Gibbs (West Midlands).
Attendance: 13,664.