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The afternoon didn’t get off to the best of starts for the Clarets with news that David May had failed a fitness test and then went worse when Gareth Farrelly left the ground over an hour before kick off feeling unwell.
Tony Grant was thankfully fit again but this left us with only three substitutes. Stan as in the past accused the fans of having a laugh but to be quite honest somebody really is having a laugh here but in doing so turning Burnley Football Club into a laughing stock.
We are a professional club playing in the second best league in the country, in fact after today’s win we stand 28th in the country, and yet we cannot find a squad of 16 players for a match.
I accept that we have players injured and I accept that we have a small squad because of financial restrictions but why on earth are players such as Damien Hindle and a fit again Joel Pilkington, or even members of the youth squad, not making up the numbers on the bench.
It happens at other clubs, Norwich once again had a fifteen year-old goalkeeper on the bench today and the Chairman and Directors should be asking manager Stan Ternent just what is going on and why he will not use younger players to occupy those places.
May was replaced by club captain Graham Branch whilst Richard Chaplow got his first start since his Man of the Match performance against Crewe five weeks ago with the other nine players unchanged from the side that had played in the 1-1 draw at Watford. Lee Roche, Tony Grant and Matt O’Neill were those with plenty of room to spread out on the substitutes’ bench.
Walsall had threatened to come and defend and try to catch us on the break but it was the visitors who had the first couple of attacks. That was all to change though as the Clarets took the lead with their first attempt at goal and with only four minutes gone.
Robbie Blake and Luke Chadwick linked up well to put Dean West clear down the right and Fred, who was to be involved in much of our good work in the first period of the game swung in a superb and inviting low cross. It was Facey who met it at the far post and this time he made no mistake from close range.
It was Facey’s first goal since he netted for Bolton in a 4-2 Premiership win against Birmingham last February but once started he wasn’t going to finish.
It was all Burnley now and quite honestly it is difficult to understand just how we didn’t add at least one more goal in the next twenty minutes as we were simply too good for Walsall.
A brilliant move down the left saw Facey superbly turn the ball back for West to come storming in and hit a rocket but a deflection took the ball onto the bar to prevent us doubling the lead.
Chadwick, again looking more dangerous down his favourite right side, set up Ian Moore but Walsall keeper James Walker saved well and then came what could have been the Goal of the Season.
Burnley won a free kick fully thirty yards from goal and Robbie Blake hit a direct effort at goal that was heading for the top left-hand corner. Somehow Walker got a hand to it and managed to deflect it onto the post.
It was wonderful football and lifted the whole ground, brilliant effort and an equally brilliant save from the keeper.
Surely a second goal would come but when it did it was at the wrong end of the ground and incredibly Walsall drew level. They won a couple of right wing corners in quick succession and the second of them proved to be decisive.
David Hay won the corner all too easily in the air and that allowed Paul Merson to head home from close range with our goalkeeper caught in no man’s land. Once again fingers pointed at Jensen who was quite clearly at fault by coming for a ball and getting nowhere near it.
How that changed the game and having drawn level Walsall could have won the game in the next ten minutes as they took control.
Jorge Leitao saw an effort cleared off the line by Branch, Merson shot wide when it was easier to score and then Leitao missed what can only be described as a sitter.
We could have been 4-1 down so easy were the chances but they didn’t take them and by half time we had managed to get ourselves back into the game and the last action of the first half saw Facey come close to grabbing a second but his shot cannoned off the post.
So half time came with the game all square at 1-1 but we really could have been spending the entire interval counting the goals.
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For once though the Clarets were failing to create clear cut chances although Ian Moore almost got on the end of a Robbie Blake cross.
Again Facey nearly got a second after Andy Todd who was playing his last match before returning to neighbours Blackburn played him in. According to referee Jones and his assistant Facey shot narrowly wide from a tight angle, in truth Walker made another top save to deny him and the goal kick awarded should have been a corner.
There was just this niggle that Walsall might go and snatch and undeserved winner but that was not to be and finally on 82 minutes we regained the lead. It all came from a free kick on the edge of the penalty box on the left-hand side. Robbie Blake took it and he curled in an absolute beauty and Facey came storming in to get his head on it and make no mistake from close range.
It was Facey’s second and he joined the likes of Malcolm Smith, Paul McGee, David Reeves, Junior Bent, Nathan Peel, Gerry Creaney and Luke Chadwick all loan players to have scored twice in a match for the Clarets. But he wasn’t going to settle for that.
We had a scare just a minute later when Walsall won a free kick on the edge of our box which was taken by Merson, a player with great skill but one, along with Samways, now very much looking at the end of his career. Thankfully he hit it into the side netting.
So the stage was set for Facey and again Blake was the provider with a superb ball that put him clear although it still left the striker with work to do. He was pushed wide and Walker came out to narrow the angle but it made no difference. After scoring with his right foot and his head he finished it off in style by grabbing his third with his left foot.
It was our first hat trick since Taylor’s in the defeat against Watford last season and our first meaningful hat trick in the league since Andy Payton’s at the end of 1999.
There is no doubt that Facey gives you everything he has in ninety minutes, his attitude and work rate can never be questioned and today he got his reward with his own first hat trick in first team football.
You have to consider a player who scores three for any Man of the Match reward but had I been voting before those last two goals then it would have been a choice between two for me.
I thought Andy Todd, in his last appearance, was magnificent. In the absence of May and with Branchy looking unsure at times at the back he looked immense. He defended how a good defender should and I just hope that we might see him in a Claret & Blue shirt again sometime soon.
And no report on today’s game can surely pass without a mention for Richard Chaplow. The youngster was starting for the first time in five weeks, he is still to start two consecutive first team games, yet looked for all the world today as if he has always been there.
He is currently living all our dreams, the young Burnley fan who has been given the chance to wear the shirt. I’m not sure there was a blade of grass that he didn’t cover at some stage this afternoon but it is not just about work rate. He was up against some quality experienced players and far from looking out of place he was dominating proceedings in the middle of the park.
He was winning tackles, making runs, passing the ball well and at times in the second half he seemed to be involved in everything we did, there is no chance of Robbie Blake keep taking the ball off him now.
I recall seeing him playing in the youth team some time ago and thinking we might have a very good player and the way he grabs each first team opportunity convinces me that he could become a real Claret star. Stan said recently that he needs to keep his feet on the ground, I don’t think there is any danger of him not doing. There’ll be many more good performances to come from this youngster, of that I am convinced.
But it was not all Chaplow and Todd, or even Facey. Overall we were much the better side this afternoon and apart from that mad spell in the first half it is difficult to recall a Walsall chance.
There are difficult games ahead though and we need to keep up this quality of play and hopefully find ourselves some more players if only to fill the damn bench, it really does make us look like a parks football team.
The teams today were,
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Dean West, Graham Branch, Andy Todd, Mo Camara, Luke Chadwick, Paul Weller, Richard Chaplow, Delroy Facey, Robbie Blake, Ian Moore. Subs not used: Lee Roche, Tony Grant, Matt O’Neill.
Walsall: James Walker, Zigor Aranalde, David Hay, Neil Emblen, Chris Baird, Jamie Lawrence, Paul Merson, Vinny Samways, Pedro Matias (Gary Birch 88), Gary O’Neil, Jorge Leitao. Subs not used: Darren Bazeley, Aaron Kerr, Simon Osborn, Deon Burton.
Referee: Michael Jones (Chester).