Late Chappy goal wins it

Richard Chaplow - his late goal won it for the Clarets

It wasn’t vintage Claret out there and was perhaps one of the poorer performances so far this season as we conceded the midfield to a Cardiff side that seemed to lack ideas as well as confidence.

As expected Steve Cotterill gave loan player Richard Duffy a first start in place of the suspended Michael Duff and he also left out Micah Hyde with Jean-Louis Valois returning to play on the right hand side of the midfield.

It started brightly enough with Robbie Blake coming close after some superb close play in the box but with Cardiff getting men behind the ball we began to have some difficulty in creating too much.

One of the problems was in midfield, where both Chappy and Tony Grant were way off the pace, and this allowed Cardiff far too much of the ball and on the occasions we did get forward the Cardiff defence was well marshalled with Danny Gabbidon on top form.

Their defensive attitude as much as anything else kept them at bay but they did eventually start to cause us some problems as they finally decided to take a look further up the pitch.

Thankfully the defence was in form again and in particular John McGreal who is currently looking almost unbeatable. He spreads calmness and organisation across the back four on top of turning in a string of top performances and it would be very difficult to look anywhere else when the man of the match awards were being handed out.

There were some scares and there was one moment when we all thought Frank Sinclair was going to open his own goal account – but the first half finally petered out with the 0-0 scoreline that it deserved.

With no one looking as if they might score during that first forty five minutes it was good to see a real class goalscorer stride out there at half time as ex-Claret Willie Irvine made the half time draw. Maybe he could inspire us.

There was no indication that he had as the second half got underway and it was very much just like the first half with Cardiff coping with some early Burnley attacks before getting the upper hand.

The one consolation was that Cardiff were as unlikely to score as we were and there is no doubt that we should be thankful we don’t have a front two of Alan Lee and Peter Thorne, they are far from the best at this level, and never really looked as though they would win it for Cardiff.

John McGreal - another majestic performance at the back

It made little, if any difference and with the clock running down it all looked like a 0-0 draw, Amadou Sanokho came on with three minutes to go for the disappointing Valois and then Chappy struck.

Robbie picked the ball up in midfield and having made a run forward played Chappy in and he made no mistake, giving former Millwall keeper Tony Warner no chance as his shot hit the side netting.

The excitement was too much and the assistant referee in front of the Bob Lord Stand took a battering from Bumble Bee as the celebrations got underway.

Suddenly there was something to cheer for the crowd who had been as quiet as any time I can remember at the Turf, it really is getting worse.

There was to be one last piece of important action and it came at the other end. Cardiff looked to have equalised but Danny Coyne made an astonishing save to tip it round the post at the expense of a corner and the game was won.

We needed that win, and it has made the recent away draws at Wigan and Leicester even better results now as we move up to seventh in the table.

We’re unbeaten in September and only Stoke last Saturday have scored a league goal against us in the month.

There were no contenders for man of the match for me – John McGreal won it by a mile in another superb defensive display.

And as for the Clarets, we’ll certainly play a lot better this season and not win, so on this occasion I’ll gratefully accept the points and will show no sympathy for a Cardiff side travelling back to South Wales with nothing.

The teams were,

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Richard Duffy, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, Jean-Louis Valois (Amadou Sanokho 87), Richard Chaplow, Tony Grant (Micah Hyde 70), Graham Branch, Ian Moore, Robbie Blake. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill.

Cardiff: Tony Warner, Darren Williams, Danny Gabbidon, Tony Vidmar, Chris Barker, Jobi McAnuff, Graham Kavanagh, Gary O’Neil, Paul Parry, Peter Thorne, Alan Lee (Lee Bullock 80). Subs not used: Neil Alexander, James Collins, Willie Boland, John Robinson.

Referee: Keith Hill (Herts).

Attendance: 11,200.