These where the chants being called from the away end after the clarets suffered a second successive defeat away at Barnsley. Goals from the lively young starlet Jacob Butterfield and ex Bolton striker Ricardo Vaz Te sealed a second home win of the season for the Tykes.
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| Ross Wallace - our liveliest player |
However, it was the clarets that started the brighter. 4 minutes in Kieran Trippier burst down the right hand side on one of his lung bursting excursions, pulled back for Ross Wallace who fired it towards the goal only to be cleared off the line. The entire away went up in synchronisation as they thought they made the perfect start.
That was the best it got for the Clarets in the opening exchanges as Barnsley started to stamp their authority on the game. The pressure was building! Ex Motherwell winger Jim O’Brien was causing all kinds of problems down the right hand side as Brian Easton was unable to cope with his pace and trickery.
After a number of good runs and crosses for the home side, the breakthrough came on the 20 minute mark as once again the lively O’Brien got the better of the struggling Easton, crossed the ball deep header down by Davies and an easy finish from young Butterfield. Easy as that. It really was painful to watch from a defensive point of view as Barnsley easily carved open our defence and there was an air of inevitability about the goal.
After the goal the Clarets responded brightly. 24 minutes gone Jay Rodriguez cut in from the left, unleashed a rasping drive that rattled the crossbar. However, the clarets didn’t build from this near miss and once again O’Brien was giving the ungainly Easton all sorts of problems. (we are really missing Southampton’s Left Back). Whipping crosses into the box and a few corners that the Clarets managed to scramble away.
Despite the Clarets fragility at the back, going forward we still had a little spark. On 35 minutes a neat interchange with Junior Stanislas and Ross Wallace down the right hand side produced a fine block from a Stanislas shot that looked to be heading for goal.
In recent games Lee Grant has put in some decent performances particularly at the Den. But he had a scary moment from a Danny Drinkwater free kick. A powerfully hit free kick spilled to what looked like a tap in from the on rushing Barnsley attacker only to be denied by a brilliant clearance from Canadian International David Edgar. He managed to leap in the air and hook the ball away from what looked like a certain goal.
As the half time whistle rang a few boos and the chant’ Eddie sort it out’ was cried from the away end. As Eddie pondered how he was going to sort it out a discussion broke out between me and my Dad. Who have we got to bring on? The answer not very much!
The second half began brightly for the Clarets. Jay Rod broke from midfield and laid the ball out wide to Wallace who got to the by line and crossed to the near post where Charlie Austin was approaching only for a good clearance from the defender. The chance was still there as it reached Easton only to drive straight at the keeper. I turned to my Dad not quite got as good a left foot as Southampton’s Left Back.
But Burnley got the ball back a minute later as Austin found himself on the right hand side of the penalty area had a shot well blocked and then had a second attempt that was sliced horribly into the side netting.
However, Burnley didn’t build on this bright start as Craig Davies a summer signing from Chesterfield had a clear run on the goal. 2 0 surely? No, he dragged it horribly wide as Lee Grant breathed a huge sigh of relief. Burnley had not learnt their lesson as Davies was presented with another one on one chance. A long punt up field from Goalkeeper Luke Steele was misjudged by Edgar as he let the ball bounce allowing a free run on goal for Davies. He must have been aiming for the same spot as his first attempt as again he miscued wide of the mark.
Wallace who was looking Burnley’s most lively player cut in the from the right on 61 minutes and unleashed a swerving drive that the keeper got across to palm away. A minute later Burnley had a large penalty appeal. A cross in from the left from Easton was headed down by Austin to Wallace who looked to have his legs took from him, referee Lee Mason waved away the appeals to the displeasure of the travelling fans.
A quiet spell in the game followed for the next 10 minutes with only a Wallace free kick from 30 yards was hit tamely at the Barnsley keeper to which my Dad shouted ‘BACKPASS’! Then on 70 minutes the travelling support held their breath after a lung bursting run from the willing Marvin Bartley forced Steele out of his box and his clearance fell straight to skipper Chris McCann just inside his own half. He took aim and fired agonizingly wide of the mark. However, the skipper offered little more and looked slightly off the pace. I have suffered a serious knee injury and it is not easy to come back playing and our captain doesn’t look the same player as when we achieved promotion.
Ten minutes later Barnsley sealed the 3 points as again Burnley gave them a gift of a goal. A long punt up the line missed by Edgar, Butterfield ran onto it and played it inside to sub Ricardo Vaz Te who coolly slotted it past Lee Grant. Does that sound easy? The answer is YES a little too easy. The game then petered out as Barnsley easily held onto their lead and sent the Clarets to a second straight defeat!
A slightly better performance from Saturday’s defeat but that isn’t saying much. Boos rang out from a small minority of the away end which I never agree with, It does no good! But for sure Eddie has got a lot to sort out and has got to do it quick. How will he do that I don’t know. But what I do know is we are desperately down on quality from last year. We needed an Eagles today for a bit of pace, Cork for a passing outlet in midfield but for me we had an excellent left back and sold him for what I consider nowhere enough.
We lacked a quality delivery today and got torn apart down the left as we replaced the league’s best left back with a committed but very average replacement. Did I mention Danny Fox set up Southampton’s winner tonight against West Ham to go five points clear at the top?