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Dismal Clarets go out
It's difficult to know where to start, we began badly, and despite hitting the bar in the 89th minute we ended badly, and it hardly got any better at any stage in between. There were poor performances right across the pitch, too many bad mistakes to mention, and yet we should have won it so bad were the opposition.
Hartlepool created the first opening of the game, scored from a twice taken penalty and that was about it from them, but it was enough to beat us on a night when we only asked their goalkeeper to make one save, and that the header he tipped onto the bar right at the end.
Steve Cotterill said there would be changes and he made three from the side that started against Wolves on Saturday. Stephen Foster came in for Frank Sinclair at right back, Micah Hyde was replaced by James O'Connor and Andy Gray returned with Steve Jones moving into a wide position at the expense of Wade Elliott. The three left out all came on during the second half.
Alan Mahon played on the right hand side with Jones on the left and neither of them had much impact on proceedings. Once Hartlepool had put an early shot wide it was virtually all Burnley but our approach was poor, we hit too many balls up to the front men rather than playing it through the midfield, and it all came to nothing with Kyle Lafferty probably having the best chance of the first half after getting onto a knock down from fellow striker Gray.
He put that effort wide and, although it came not too long before half time, it was our first real effort on goal but we did get in two more shots wide of the target before half time.
It really had been a dreadful first half and the only consolation was that it surely could only get better after half time. Sadly that wasn't the case and in the end it got worse. The tedium of the first half continued after half time. The crowd did burst into life at one point but it wasn't prompted by anything on the pitch and was probably no more than relieving the boredom.
We made changes, Hyde came on for a disappointing Chris McCann and Elliott replaced Foster as we reshuffled. It made no difference and as most of the crowd worried about the prospect of another thirty minutes of it disaster struck.
Again it was a defensive catastrophe, again it was the centre of defence, and this one for me was all Wayne Thomas. In almost a repeat of the Johnson goal on Saturday he let the Hartlepool player get the better of him far too easily but then made matters worse by getting back and fouling him for as clear a penalty as you are likely to see.
Referee Boyeson produced the red card and to be honest he can have no argument whatsoever. It was shocking defending by the captain, the very player manager Steve Cotterill had singled out for praise in a national newspaper article today. The fans right now see Thomas somewhat differently, this is his third red card in eighteen starts for Burnley, but more than that his mistake cost us the game.
They had to take the penalty twice, but they netted both times, and even though there was another quarter of an hour to play there was never any indication that we would come back.
We had a run of poor results against teams from lower divisions in the cups a few years ago, defeats against the likes of Darlington, Scunthorpe, Rushden & Diamonds and Steve Cotterill's Cheltenham, but we thought we'd put a stop to such defeats. That was until tonight.
Man of the match – well the sponsors gave it to Kyle and I won't disagree, I certainly can't think of anyone else and I probably wouldn't have given it to anyone although Micah Hyde did improve things when he came on. In truth we shouldn't be looking at any of our players and should be giving it to their centre half Michael Nelson, the best player on the pitch.
We've some work to do after this week's two home games, but no matter what happens I can't see us producing anything quite so bad as tonight. The missing thousands got it right by staying at home whilst those who arrived early will be trying to work out what to do with their vouchers giving them £10 off for the next round.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Stephen Foster (Wade Elliott 72), Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Alan Mahon (Frank Sinclair 79), James O'Connor, Chris McCann (Micah Hyde 65), Steve Jones, Kyle Lafferty, Andy Gray. Subs not used: John Spicer, Graham Branch.
Hartlepool: Dimitrios Konstantopoulos, Darren Williams, Gary Liddle, Michael Nelson, John Brackstone, Eifion Williams (James Brown 82), Antony Sweeney, Lee Bullock, Matty Robson, Joel Porter, Michael Proctor (David Foley 89). Subs not used: Jim Provett, Ben Clark, Ritchie Humphreys.
Referee: Carl Boyeson (East Yorkshire).
Attendance: 3,853.