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This was another truly dreadful performance which simply served to highlight the current squad’s many shortcomings. Stan says he can’t wait for the summer to rebuild the squad, and there is not a Burnley supporter who would disagree. The problem he faces is that this summer is going to be all about trimming our huge wage bill. Just what Ternent will have left to play with is anybody’s guess. One thing is for sure. He will have to wheel and deal as never before.
Burnley lined up with Nik The Greek in goal, "protected" by a back four of Branch, Davis, Gnohere and McGregor. Midfield was comprised of Blake, Chaplow, Grant and Maylett. Gareth Taylor led the line and was "supported" by Ian Moore.
It was in fact Ian Moore who had the first shot of the game on 2 minutes. But as you might expect it flew straight into the arms of Kevin Pressman. Sixty seconds later, the Clarets were behind. Paul McLaren kicked the ball (rather than shot) towards goal. All NTG had to do was get his body behind the ball and hold it. In the event he did neither, taking his eye off the ball as it bobbled almost comically into the net, to the joy of the 4,000 Wednesday-ites in the Cricket Field Stand.
Burnley supporters had only just taken their heads from their hands when the visitors doubled their money. Between them, McGregor, Davis, Gnohere and NTG failed to deal with a Brian Barry-Murphy cross and Westwood gleefully turned the ball home. We braced ourselves for another mauling.
A minute later it was almost three, but NTG made a tremendous double save from first Kuqi, then Grant. The squad’s fall-guy, Mark McGregor was sacrificed on 8 minutes, Stan chasing the game by introducing long-throw specialist, Matty O’Neill. Three minutes later, Moore turned on the edge of Wednesday’s box, but his effort was tipped away by Pressman. On 16, Blake was a whisker away with a free-kick which flew past the left post.
Just as Burnley were clawing their way back into the game, Ian Moore threw it all away by kicking out at Brian Barry-Murphy, leaving the inept Mark Clattenburg with no option but to dismiss the "striker". Another player left the action 7 minutes later, as Chris Stringer replaced the injured Pressman.
On 32 minutes Wednesday wrapped the points up with their third goal. Richard Wood misjudged a cross and fell over. But whilst he was doing so, he still had the wit about him to turn the ball past a prostrate Michopoulos. Cue more boos. Or perhaps more booze for some who had seen enough and headed off to The Park View in search of oblivion. Minutes later NTG was off to join them, as he injured himself collecting a ball into the area. In the absence of a keeper on the bench, Beresford replaced him.
Shortly before half-time, the Clarets pulled one back through a Robbie Blake penalty. That didn’t stop the general head-shaking and furrowed brows in the East Stand concourse during the break. Many of us feared it would get worse. We were right.
Sixty seconds in from the kick-off, and it was clear that we were picking up where we had left off as a Paul Evans cross seemed to take a deflection and completely outfox Beresford. On 53 minutes, Robbie Blake produced a jinking run and fired goalwards. Stringer proved himself just as inept as NTG and Marlon as he parried the ball, but only succeeded in taking the sting off the shot. The ball rolled apologetically over the line and we were back to 2-4.
At this point, Stan seemed to go for damage limitation bringing on Armstrong for the chronically poor Brad Maylett. If that was the plan, it was immediately blown out of the water. On 66 minutes, Steven Haslam capitalised on feeble defending to restore the visitors’ three goal cushion. Seven minutes later the Clarets had shipped six for the third time this campaign as King Arthur well and truly lost his crown as he put through his own net in front of the jubilant Wednesday-ites who were enjoying what was their biggest away win of the season. In fact it was probably their biggest ever away win.
The ignominy was complete on 80 minutes when Alan Quinn scored the game’s best goal with a screamer from 30 yards which unsurprisingly left Marlon clutching at nothing.
The game ended in a blizzard of season-tickets which rained down onto the pitch during the closing stages. Some would say that this was an empty gesture, but let’s see how many of those who violently discarded their tickets will be renewing over the coming weeks. Given this latest spineless capitulation, my guess would be not many.