Not pretty but who cares

Star Geezer - David May

If it was difficult to eat a meal prior to the game, the team news did not ease the butterflies at all. Out was Ian Moore, Neil Wood and Tony Grant, in came Lenny Johnrose for his third home debut, whilst hobbling onto the bench went Dele Adebola and young Pilkington made up the numbers as only sixteen names made it to the ground, let alone the dressing room.

In the away end, numbers were also depleted and it was debatable whether there were more stewards than visiting fans, the last count made numbered twenty nine with no coach to take them home.

For the third consecutive home game, Clarets lost the toss and a bright opening to the game saw Clarets play at a reasonably high tempo as at times their football defied the importance of the result.

A cheap Little giveaway resulted in a speculative Wimblekeynes first time effort that whistled just past Jensen's upright, but this was a rare moment of anguish for Stan's troops as he sat out the final of his four games in the stands.

Watching with interest, his patched up squad started to find its shape after a few minutes of the game and the front pairing of Branch and Blake began to function once the Wimblekeynes offside trap had been understood.

The crowd were behind their team and any moment of passion, commitment or quality was matched with applause and for once chanting, the importance of the result lost on no one.

On the quarter hour mark, Camara's great low ball across the area deserved better than to go unfinished, but the four Clarets in the area were all in a line in advance of the ball and Wimblekeynes hacked away.

Little put Branch beyond the off side line up, but the first touch was poor by Clarets new striker and the chance was lost, but the balance of possession and the better of the play was most definitely from the home side.

On twenty five minutes came the opening goal. Weller's cross was received beyond the far post be Little and his return cross was nodded home bravely by Branch, his second and most important goal in this barren season of goal scoring as the ground erupted in a combination of celebration and relief.

Minutes later and the second should have arrived. Weller's pass out to Little was returned superbly first time, the low arcing cross crying out for a striker.

With Clarets pushing for the all important second goal and Wimblekeynes looking misshapen and poor, Blake and Chaplow combined well, the diminutive midfielder unlucky not to chip the advancing rookie 'keeper.

There was to be no second goal as Clarets dominated and disaster almost struck as from within a crowded area, Jensen's finger tips emerged to claw a hopeful shot onto the post, many a Claret heart missing a beat, the tenuous nature of the one goal lead there for all to see.

Star Gazer - Glen Little

Jensen's huge kick was flicked on by Branch, Blake looked to challenge and 'keeper Martin and defender Ntimban-Zeh got their communications all wrong, the defender heading back into the empty net as they met on the edge of the area.

The sight of that bouncing ball rolling into the empty net will haunt many a Walsall/Gillingham/Derby fan. It may not have been a goal of the season contender, but it will have sold many pints in Burnerleee pubs tonight. HT 2-0.

The least said about the dire, dreadful uneventful second half the better. Forty five minutes of football that can easily be forgotten. Had this been pay per view, there would be refunds pending.

However, we didn't go to be entertained, and with the game played at a much lower tempo with Clarets content to sit back whilst Wimblekeynes blasted shots high and wide on the few occasions they mustered attacks, the half passed without much incident.

True Alan Moore came on and for once got stuck in and did his job. equally so, Joel Pilkington collected a win bonus coming on as a late sub for the superb Richard Chaplow, Stan looking to protect his walking wounded as the half progressed, with Robbie Blake replaced by Luke Chadwick.

The Beast had a quiet half, May and McGregor shut up shop quite effectively and despite some huff and puff Wimblekeynes failed to blow the house down, despite their pretty patterns in corner routines. FT 2-0.

Att:- 12,223

Glen Little. There were two moments in the first half where his quality shone through. There were though eighty eight other minutes where his contribution and effort levels were negligible. On a night when the big names were expected to stand out and play their part, his was a bit part role full of frustration.

It's extremely worrying looking at the remnants of the squad in the crucial last few games. Two more points will surely do it, but the Clarets will probably scrape over the safety margin if they are able to muster enough players to see out the season.

David May. Cometh the hour, cometh the star qualities of a top class defender. Never put a foot wrong and his years of experience enabled a marshalling of the back four that snuffed out any threats from Wimblekeynes young strikers.

Good to see some quality approach play in the first half, before the game descended into the second half of poor fodder. The bright opening forty five minutes restored some of the faith in the team's abilities to play neat, quality football.