Laws takes the limelight

Last updated : 28 August 2005 By Andy Dean
Ade Akinbiyi - five goals in the last five games
From the outset, the game plan from the visitors was obvious, they would attempt to pick out the tall Polish striker Grzegorz Rasiak at the first opportunity, his aerial prowess was obvious and it was easy to see why the ex-Siena forward netted 8 times with his head last season.

Providing most of the fodder for Rasiak’s head was influential Spaniard Inigo Idiakez, after his showing today its easy to see why Glenn Hoddle has tried all summer to take the midfield-string puller to Molineux. Idiakez was at the hub of most of the good football that the Rams played. His long throws and corners gave Danny Coyne a testing opening, as he has to repeatedly come and collect the ball from the edge of his 6-yard area.

It took the home side 11 minutes to threaten the derby goal, Micah Hyde robbing Paul Thirlwell of the ball in the centre circle before driving on and feeding Ade Akinbiyi who managed only to drag the ball across the face of goal with three sides of the ground waiting for the net to bulge.

The Rams then squandered the first two attempts they mustered on the home goal, Morten Bisgaard and Tommy Smith firing warning shots at Coyne, Smith even managing to beat the Welsh number one only to be denied by the post.

Then on 19 minutes a rare occurrence in modern football, a properly contested drop ball! Mr Laws stopped play when a ruck developed inside the Burnley half and called for a drop ball, rather than the ball being unnecessarily kicked back to either side as has become the norm it was properly contested. This was one of Graham Laws better decisions in what was a quiet first half for him, more would come in the second forty-five minutes though.

Bisgaard again found himself with an opportunity to open the scoring after spinning round Wayne Thomas but Coyne foiled the dangerous Dane after he turned the new Clarets centre half with an uncomplicated spin that left Thomas stranded. At the other end, Ade Akinbiyi had the chance to open the scoring but after Graham Branch had found him with a flick header, he managed to escape the attentions of the impressive Middlesbrough defender Andrew Davies only to miss-cue completely from the penalty spot.

As the match reached the 30-minute mark, so came the moment of magic that was needed to ignite a match lacking in real quality. Michael Duff tripped the busy Morten Bisgaard as he attempted to weave through the Clarets defence. Inigo Idiakez struck a sweet free kick round the wall and into the net. Cue an explosion of noise from the Derbyshire visitors in the Cricket Field End.

However, the ball did not seem to find the corner of the goal so Coyne may need to be more careful when formulating his wall and taking up his starting position when faced with such dead ball specialists in future. Not taking anything away from Idiakez as his efforts throughout the game more than warranted the goal.

The first half ended with Burnley pushing for the equaliser, Wayne Thomas and Garreth O’Connor calling Lee Camp into action for the first time from set pieces.

Whether Mr Laws decided during the half time interval that his role in proceedings had been too passive or not, he was the lead character in a second half that twisted and turned like an Alan Titchmarsh novel.

Ade Akinbiyi burst past Davies and Johnson in the heart of the Derby defence to latch onto a Garreth O’Connor pass and find the net for his fifth goal in five games. 22 seconds gone and already, the second half had exploded into life.

Then a moment Lee Camp will not want to see again, from a deep Michael Duff cross, the young Derby keeper came from his line to claim the ball, he only proceeded to miss the ball totally and leave Gifton Noel-Williams to rise above the Rams defence to head into an unguarded goal for his second Burnley goal of the season.

Mr. Laws then decided the paid professionals were taking too much of the limelight and he decided he would take centre stage. Wayne Thomas ‘challenged’ for the ball with Rasiak, as the ball ran safely away, the Pole fell to the floor writhing in agony holding his face. Cue Graham Laws’ chance to get into the action, he ran over and showed Thomas a red card to the astonishment of the home crowd. As he did against Preston in the playoff semi final of last season at Pride Park (when he won a controversial penalty for his side), he fell theatrically attempting to gain an unfair advantage for his side by feigning injury. Laws took the bait offered by Rasiak and Thomas could do nothing but walk down the tunnel.

Phil Brown then shuffled his pack as Paul Peschisolido and Seth Johnson came on to freshen up the Derby front line. Cotterill also reacted to the dismissal with a substitute of is own, Keith Lowe making his debut following his arrival from Wolves in place of goal scorer Noel-Williams as we reverted to 4-4-1.

The came the afternoons nastiest incident as ex-Norwich full back Marc Edworthy fell under a challenge from Graham Branch, the tackle lead to a lengthy treatment for the unfortunate Edworthy who required attention to his throat from both medical teams and from the ambulance service within the ground. At least 10 minutes passed, and the less sympathetic Burnley fans found it suitable to chant “time to go” to the stricken fullback, not a moment that made me proud to be a Claret I must admit.

Then came Phil Brown’s attempt to take the limelight, he entered the playing area not once, but twice! Firstly in objection to the withdrawal of the multi ball system and secondly to the position Danny Coyne took a goal kick from! Very trivial matters that the sun-tanned rams’ boss allowed himself to be carried away about and it eventually led to Mr Laws asking him to leave the touchline.

Laws continued to make bad decision after bad decision as McGreal, O’Connor and Lowe were all fouled but Laws deemed nothing to be illegal as he proved his ineptness once again.

Graham Branch then found himself in a very unusual situation, he was being booed but instead of the usual barracking form the Burnley fans he was being abused by the away fans - Graham revelled in the circumstances and proceeded to gesticulate to the derby contingent in an attempt to enrage them further.

Mr Laws refused to stay out of the action as he booked Duff and Garreth O’Connor for minimal offences in the closing minutes. The booking for Duff led to the equalising goal, Idiakez hit the dead ball into the face of Micah Hyde and after the Burnley defence failed to clear, Tommy Smith found himself alone on the left side. He crossed for the dangerous yet lightweight Polish striker Rasiak who clipped his header off the underside of the bar.

The cruel and probably undeserved equaliser came in the fourth of eleven minutes of stoppage time, this figure should surely have been more bearing in mind Brown’s touchline antics, 4 substitutions, Rasiak’s constant acting and Edworthy’s injury the figure should have been more than 15 rather than a mere 11 !
The impressive Jon Harley, who shone on debut, had a free kick hit the wall in around the 100th minute but the game petered out into an eventful yet unjust draw. The Derby fans left with a point but surely the referee did more for their cause than the majority of their players. John Harley took home a deserved man of the match award following an accomplished performance from an established player.

All in all, I do hope Graham Laws is not assigned to a Burnley game in the near future.