Late goal sinks Clarets

Last updated : 14 March 2007 By Southendclarets
Jon Harley - played well alongside Steven Caldwell
We created a good chance that really should have been scored and saw a good run from Gudjonsson straight at the heart of the Southend defence which could have came to more. And apart from a deflected Elliott shot late in the first half that was it for Burnley as far as scoring attempts were concerned.

We weren't playing against a good team, we weren't playing against a team full of creative flair or a team that had much creative nous themselves and apart from a willingness to get the ball wide Southend offered very little indeed apart from a shot which drew a good save from Coyne low to his left midway through the second half, and of course the goal scored in the dying seconds following a disastrous mistake from Elliott.

I still can't work out what went so wrong, the Burnley crowd started the match in full song and ended the game in disbelief, they supported the team throughout and mainly stood in silence at the final whistle, the team started in full throttle and created a glorious chance that had "goal" written all over it and ended up visibly gutted when the goal was conceded in stoppage time.

So then to the game, what can be said. Within five minutes our chance came, the ball was worked neatly down the right and a perfect ball from Andy Gray was played in and landed right on Akinbiyi's boot. Akinbiyi was just to the left of the goal, about four yards out with the goalkeeper nowhere and the goal gaping - we had to score, the Burnley support could see what was coming and were already on their feet getting ready to dance only to see the ball played horribly wide when scoring (and if the ball was played anywhere on target we surely would have scored) would have been the easier option. And how different it might have been if that had gone in.

Shortly after this a good direct run from Gudjonsson might have culminated in a shot but was played wide instead and came to nothing and at this point I was thinking this might be our night, how wrong I was.

Southend had a tricky winger (Campbell-Ryce) that saw a lot of the ball, too much for Gudjonsson's liking who mistimed a tackle and dumped him unceremoniously on the floor to earn himself a yellow card.

This was followed shortly after by Southend's best chance of the half, the ball was played through to the attacker who was in acres of space having been played onside by Harley (who received the rollicking of his life from Caldwell). Luckily he screwed the ball wide with Coyne looking beaten.

Apart from losing McGreal early in the piece to be replaced by Foster that was all of note in the first half, that is apart from the woeful corners and set pieces taken by the iceman, surely beating the first man from a corner is not difficult, or perhaps it is for Gudjonsson who seemed to hit the first defender with unnerving regularity. Such was his consistency in performing this feat there seemed to be little point in winning corners at all.

The second half was largely uneventful and unfortunately saw Burnley play the whole half without a single effort on goal although it did see the bookings of Harley and O'Connor. There was very little creativity from our midfield players and replacing Gudjonsson with Lafferty and then Foster with Spicer seemed to change very little but we were going to get a point, we were going to keep Southend at arms length or so it seemed.

We were already a minute into three minutes of injury time when a nothing ball was lobbed up towards the Burnley penalty area before what appeared to be a back header to Coyne from Elliott was easily intercepted by a lurking Southend attacker who beat Coyne with ease to the disbelief of the travelling fans.

There was no time for a response but given the nature of the second half we could still have been playing now and not have scored. Gray and Akinbiyi didn't play well either in partnership together or individually and the service provided by our midfield to the front two was woeful. The defence was average all night, apart, that is, from Caldwell who played a captains role throughout and showed passion, skill and endeavour and to a lesser extent Harley who despite his earlier mistake stuck to the task all night. These were the only bright point of the night for me and if pushed I would nominate Caldwell for my man of the match.