Clarets pay the penalty

Last updated : 06 March 2004 By Tony Scholes

David May - another excellent performance
This time though the decision looked nothing more than a joke in a match that saw referee David Pugh and his assistants have something of a nightmare as all the key decisions appeared to go against the Clarets.

I’ve tried to avoid referees in recent weeks but something told me this was going to be one of those ‘Referee’ days when he took no action against the disgraceful Ricardo Fuller in the first few minutes when he assaulted Brian Jensen. That could easily have been a red card almost before the game had got underway.

In terms of football it was scrappy in the early stages and it did look as though Preston had targeted Glen Little with Rob Edwards in particular lucky to get away with a number of poor challenges.

It was already a game with enough bad decisions and there was another to go against us with probably the most blatant of penalties being waved away. A ball in from the left was headed on by Graham Branch only for Michael Jackson to knock it away with his hand. It might have been difficult to see from the town centre but impossible to miss inside the ground, that is except for the referee and his assistant.

Shortly after that we took the lead with a goal that owed much to a mistake by Preston’s Chris Lucketti as anything else. He allowed a ball from Tony Grant through to Glen Little and his pull back was knocked in by leading scorer Robbie Blake.

There could easily have been another couple of goals in the next few minutes as first Dean West superbly won the ball from David Healy as he looked set to score before Ian Moore, again struggling to find any sort of form, failed to get a shot in when the ball was played to him inside the box.

The Beast had had a quiet first half but he rescued the Clarets with a brilliant save as he turned over an effort from Michael Keane and then Andy Lonergan at the other end made an equally good save to prevent a very rare event – a Tony Grant goal.

There was almost time for one last effort but from a corner in the last minute of stoppage time we didn’t even try to get the ball into the box and we went in just the one goal up.

So where was Tony Morley for the draw? Apparently he didn’t turn up and Tony Parks, who played a couple of League Cup ties at the beginning of Stan’s reign, stood in.

Robbie Blake - scored our goal, his 16th league goal of the season
The second half was to be no different than the first and we hadn’t been underway much over five minutes when Dickson Etuhu got away with a striker to Richard Chaplow’s face in an off the ball incident. Had this been seen Etuhu would have had to go and it is just ridiculous that four officials (yes the 4th official can intervene) can all miss it.

Neither side was troubling the other but out of the blue Preston drew level with a penalty from Graham Alexander after Fuller went down in the box close to Mo Camara. It didn’t look like a spot kick to me and given Fuller’s behaviour already in the afternoon why should we not believe that he is capable of diving. But it was given against us and Alexander made no mistake.

From that moment on it is probably fair to say that Preston had the edge and on more than one occasion Fuller’s team mates were angered at his total disinterest in playing with them as he put shots wide with other players better placed.

The Jamaican was also trying to wind the home fans up but he finally got what he richly deserved in stoppage time when even this referee decided enough was enough and gave him a straight red after striking Glen.

He showed about as much enthusiasm for leaving the field as he had for playing football, we really did see another side to Fuller today and not one that I would ever like to see in a Burnley side.

It was just about the last of the action and we had to once again settle for a 1-1 draw. Unlike Tuesday though it was not earned against a particularly good side, this Preston team was a pale shadow of ones that have been to Burnley in recent years both in attitude and ability. It really does make you wonder just how the Weary Whinger can complain about anyone else.

For the Clarets there were good performances all over the field and I narrowed it down to four for man of the match between the two central defenders and the two central midfield players. In the end I decided on David May.

It’s another point although we really could do with a couple more wins sooner rather than later. It’s getting tight down there at the bottom of the division.

To get those wins we could really do with some more players available to help us. Paul Weller is back next week but now there are more suspensions. Chappy was back today but there were more injuries to Lee Roche and, I assume, Luke Chadwick.

Hopefully Chaddy and Neil Wood will be back next week to boost the squad as we go looking for another win at Coventry. We probably still need to win another four.

Today’s teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, Mark McGregor, David May, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant, Graham Branch (Alan Moore 79), Robbie Blake, Ian Moore. Subs not used: Nathan Abbey, Ryan Townsend, Paul Scott, Marc Pugh.

Preston: Andy Lonergan, Graham Alexander, Michael Jackson, Chris Lucketti (Eddie Lewis 45), Rob Edwards, David Healy, Dickson Etuhu (Alan McCormack 55), Michael Keane (Simon Lynch 82), Tyrone Mears, Ricardo Fuller, Richard Cresswell. Subs not used: David Lucas, Jeff Smith.

Referee: David Pugh (Liverpool).