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Following Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Sheffield United, the general consensus was that the Clarets had been unlucky and deserved to come away with the points. The Burnley supporters making the long journey home this evening have no such consolation and have to concede that the Royals were full value for their win over a Burnley side whom Ternent dubbed an "embarrassment."
Backed by over 1,000 supporters, their numbers swelled by a large contingent of London Clarets, Burnley were the better side in the opening exchanges. In fact their passing and movement opened up the home side in the first fifteen minutes, and Glen Little might have done better with a one on one.
But from that moment on, Reading employed a pressing game, denying the Clarets time and space. As the opening period drew to a close, the Royals grew in confidence. The first half ended with the Clarets under the cosh, as a succession of corners caused all manner of problems in the Burnley area. So much so that Johnrose almost scored an own goal, Paul Cook coming to the rescue.
Shortly after the break, Paul Cook made way for Ian Moore, as the Clarets looked to step it up. It didn’t work. Moments later the impressive John Salako skipped past Lee Briscoe and sent a peach of a cross over for Jamie Cureton. 1-0 Reading.
Up against it for the fourth time in as many games, Burnley needed to dig deep. Unfortunately, they didn’t dig nearly deep enough. For much of the following 30 minutes, the Clarets huffed and puffed. But it was all perspiration, no inspiration – all graft, no craft. Time and again, reasonable approach play broke down all too frequently whenever the Clarets got within 18 yards of the home side’s goal.
It became increasingly evident that trickery and cleverness were going to be required if any headway was to be made. Enter Robbie Blake for the hopelessly ineffective Alan Moore. Blake seemed to have been given a floating role. However, as soon became obvious, it’s difficult to float whilst wearing diving boots. This was another wretched cameo from Blake, and it becomes ever more difficult to avoid escaping the conclusion that Burnley Football Club were stitched up good and proper when paying £1M for the player. In fairness to Blake, he needs an opportunity to have a run in the side to establish himself and get some form under his belt. Yet tonight he did himself no favours.
The lowest point of the game came 10 minutes from time, when Burnley were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the Royals’ penalty box. As Blake, witlessly smashed the ball into the wall, Reading broke upfield, unmolested by any Burnley players and crashed the ball past Michopoulos from just inside the area. It is said that you should never concede goals from your own free-kicks. That goes double when your free-kick is on the edge of the opposition’s box.
Reading wrapped up the points in farcical fashion a few minutes later. Pushing for a consolation, the Clarets were caught with their pants down. Jamie Cureton found himself all alone on Burnley’s left flank and from fully 30 yards lobbed NTG, who was so far off his line he was as much of a spectator as I was, as the ball sailed over him and nestled into the empty net.
And so began the long trek back to Burnley – a trip which would not end until 3.00am. The cost of tonight’s folly comes to the best part of £50 – not to mention a day’s leave. It will be the same for the majority of the travelling support who made the trip to the Madejski this evening.
You can winge all you want about the collapse of ITV Digital (and Burnley Football Club have), but the start to this season has little to do with cash. By Ternent’s own admission, this is by and large the same squad of players who finished 7th last time out. Truth be told, (and that’s the whole point of sites like these), this has been going on since the middle of last season. It was put to me earlier this evening that the Clarets had won just 6 games since November. Whilst I have no stats to hand to prove or disprove this theory, I would be surprised if it is too far out. The bottom line is that the Clarets need to improve dramatically. With Ternent meeting the chairman for crisis talks, it remains to be seen whether the current manager will be in charge to oversee such an improvement.