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Let there be light
As expected captain Frank Sinclair returned for Gary Cahill but more surprisingly Pete Whittingham got a start with Ian Moore left out and Graham Branch selected to play the lone striker role.
Steve Cotterill is a good defensive manager but his team has no flair and is too predictable. I’ve heard that one countless times but anyone who made the trip to Coventry or to Crewe will dispute that, this was a Burnley performance of invention and an attacking Burnley performance.
We set off like a train and it was like men against boys as the home side could do little to stop us. Jean-Louis Valois down the left and particularly John Oster down the right were tormenting them.
Michael Duff was getting forward in support down the right, Pete Whittingham was settling in and making some good runs down the left (and he’s quick) whilst Micah Hyde and Tony Grant were prompting everything.
Micah put a powerful shot just over the bar before Whittingham went down under a challenge from the Crewe keeper. It looked a clear penalty but the referee awarded a goal kick. Like many referees he is under the impression that Crewe don’t do things like that, the truth is they do, they go down too easily when there is any contact, they niggle, the time waste and they are forever stealing yards on free kicks.
But Dario G’s team have the reputation for being as white as the driven snow and referee Atkinson, like many others, was taken in by it.
This wonderful footballing academy had no answer to us and there only progress came via playing long ball stuff. And out of the blue they got a goal from it but should it have ever counted?
Sinclair and Crewe’s Andy White went up for the ball and if White headed it on then he found Varney who was offside, and it wasn’t even close. He was allowed to go and he found Steve Jones, who scored twice in the fixture last season, and he made no mistake.
It was hard to take, it was hard to believe, they hadn’t been in the game. It hit us for a short time but we were soon back on top but it seemed our best hope of an equaliser would come from a long range shot.
Oster went close twice, even Grant threatened to have a shot at goal and Ince saved twice from Valois, one of them was a very good save and the other he really knew nothing about. But at half time we were still behind and the home side must have gone in wondering just how on earth they were in front.
The second half started in much the same way and after dominating the opening exchanges of the second half we finally drew level just eight minutes in. It was one of those ‘I was there’ moments, a real rarity called a Tony Grant goal.
Valois and Whittingham worked it down the left before the ball was played inside for Hyde. He set up Grant and I would like to say he hit an unstoppable rocket into the top corner but his right foot shot took a deflection before going in although it had beaten the keeper without the deflection.
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With thirteen minutes to go Dario G decided to make a double substitution and as the fourth official held up the board out went the lights. Only the emergency lighting was on, apart from the fourth official’s board and incredibly he stood there in the darkness for a full three minutes trying to facilitate the substitution.
I think it was eventually a steward that told him he might as well take the board down because the players were now leaving the field.
There were suggestions that 10p each might cover the cost of getting the electricity put back on but then someone said it was a power cut that had hit the whole area. That appeared to be disproved when a bus went past with its lights on.
Eventually, after around twenty minutes, the lights started to come back on and after a few minutes the players were finally able to return. After a short warm up we were back to the action.
Although we continued to dominate, and came close twice, we had inevitably lost the spark and you sensed that there wouldn’t be another goal. It was the case and we had to settle for a point from a game we really should have won.
There are a number of man of the match candidates. The home supporters won’t believe what we have just seen from John Oster in the last two matches and with Valois on top form on the left hand side we have looked a team of real invention.
Oster came very close to getting the vote from me but I have to go with Tony Grant who was in superb form in the midfield. And not only that he topped it with a goal.
I can’t go along with the manager regarding the forward play and I felt that Branch was close to awful at times up there on his own. He doesn’t have the energy or movement for me to play that role and however disappointing Mooro can be at times he was sorely missed last night for me.
We all know we have a sound defence, we’ve seen that over and over again all season. To add to that Steve Cotterill is now putting together a very creative midfield that will add so much to the way we play.
I think we all know that he’s been looking to strengthen the squad up front as well with such as Rob Hulse, Ade Akinbiyi and Jon Stead having been suggested. It was disappointing not to win last night, we are just coming out of a very frustrating start to the year, but I really do think we are getting there.
Apparently we don’t have a game this Saturday, for some reason the QPR game has been called on. We’ll be ready though next time we play so let there be light.
The teams were,
Crewe: Clayton Ince, Chris McCready (Neil Sorvel 78), Stephen Foster, Colin Murdock, Anthony Tonkin, Justin Cochrane, Lee Bell, Kenny Lunt, Steve Jones (David Vaughan 77), Andy White, Luke Varney. Subs not used: Ben Williams, Michael Higdon, Mark Rivers.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Mo Camara, John Oster, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant, Pete Whittingham, Jean-Louis Valois, Graham Branch (Ian Moore 85). Subs not used: Danny Coyne, Gary Cahill, Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (Leeds).
Attendance: 7,718.