|
It is three in two now for new signing Pato, and when Owen Coyle picks his team for Saturday then no doubt the striker will one of the first on the team sheet after turning in yet another good performance.
Given the number of 'Will the game be off?' and 'Is there a pitch inspection?' threads on the message board I was quite surprised, despite the heavy rain, to see the Bury pitch looking green and not underwater when I first got inside with the players all out warming up.
We awaited the team news and were thankful for access to the internet given that anything over the public address was impossible to decipher in the away stand. When it came through the three players to drop out from Saturday were goalkeeper Diego Penny, central defender Michael Duff and midfielder Remco van der Schaaf.
I was surprised at the exclusion of Penny, although manager Coyle explained afterwards that he always intended playing Jensen in this game, but there couldn't have been anyone surprised to see either Duff or van der Schaaf sat on the bench following their performances on Saturday. Brian Jensen, Christian Kalvenes and Joey Gudjonsson, our three Scandinavians, came in and the inclusion of Kalvenes saw Stephen Jordan move into the centre to partner Steven Caldwell.
Andy Bishop was the one I was set to keep an eye on in the Bury side. He scores goals for fun at League Two level and we were linked with him on one occasion during the summer. However, the one you just couldn't miss was their centre half Ben Futcher who, after the four floodlight pylons, was the tallest thing inside the ground. You always suspect someone of that size could cause you problems but thankfully for us height appeared to be his only asset.
We needed to start well, and by start well I mean not conceding an early goal. It has become a feature of our away games over the last six months and invariably going behind early in a game leads more often than not to a defeat.
In truth there was never really much danger of us falling behind in this one. Jensen had to punch clear on one occasions and on another guided a long range shot over the bar, but other than that he wasn't called on too much during a first half when we were much the better side.
Down at the other end it is fair to say that we hardly troubled their keeper though and when Martin Paterson gave us the lead five minutes before half time he hadn't been asked to make a save.
Chris Eagles headed an early Wade Elliott cross just over and a free kick from Joey from long range was very close to the target. Chris McCann had a shot blocked and Robbie hit a speculative effort just wide from almost thirty yards. That wasn't Robbie's best effort though, when the ball reached him in the centre circle from the keeper he spotted him off his line only to see his almost 50 yard effort go just over.
The nearest to a goal was from Paterson who hit the bar with a shot from a narrow angle on the right. Was it a shot or an attempted cross? Judging from his reaction I think he actually meant it and was very unlucky to see it hit the woodwork.
At times we were passing the ball around superbly but it didn't result in us getting opportunities often enough. It's all well and good passing the ball but there has to be an end product to it and too often that failed to materialise.
Mind you, we should have had a penalty when our bandana wearing friend from Macclesfield Efe Sodje clearly handled the ball. Incredibly the little man from Stockport Scott Mathieson saw nothing, or chose to, and waved play on.
You sensed we needed a goal during that first half and finally it arrived with a carbon copy of our winner there four years ago, one that Sky had reminded us of during the day. This time it was Kalvenes and not Camara. Wade started it with a ball across to Eagles who played it for the left back. He got his cross over and found Paterson at the far post who made no mistake.
It was a deserved lead, but it was a relief to see us in front and that lead was all but doubled a minute later when Robbie benefited in the box from a shot and turned to rifle home into the bottom corner. Up went the flag for offside but the defender running out wasn't spotted by the assistant who incredibly flagged for offside. Shocking decision.
2-0 at that stage and it would have been game over, but at 1-0 we had a more edgy second half. Eagles had been prominent in the first half, but as at Hillsborough he faded after the interval as our passing overall got less accurate, too often giving the ball away.
Even so the home side didn't look too much of a threat and defensively we were more than coping with anything they had to offer. Bishop was their danger man, but only as much as he consistently got away with his pushing, shoving, shirt pulling. When eventually he was pulled up for it there was loud ironic applause from the Burnley fans.
At 1-0 though you are always on edge and with good reason as they finally got the better of our defence only for Jensen to make an astonishing double save from Bishop. The first one he seemed to block with his legs but a goal looked certain from the rebound until he got up to save the second.
Owen Coyle made three substitutions and in the last ten minutes the home side ran out of steam and it was the Clarets who were finally able to get forward again. Eagles re-emerged to hit one shot over and then he played a major part in the second.
He broke through in the last minute of normal time and his shot was heading for the bottom corner until Brown got his finger tips to hit to push it away to his right. It was some save and a couple of Burnley fans to my right turned away from the pitch to laud the save and missed the next piece of action as Paterson got in at the far post to steer it into the empty net.
There were over 2,000 Burnley fans at Gigg Lane and these two were not the only ones to miss it, I would suspect at least a third of them had already left the ground by then. I wonder how they would have felt had it been Bury who had scored to take it into extra time.
It was all over after three minutes of stoppage time and with news that Plymouth and Charlton had lost it made it an even better night given that we would be seeded in the next round.
There's a hell of a lot to be done with this team, all we've done is beaten a very average looking League Two side, but we have beaten them and we so much needed that win after Saturday.
His goals have led to me giving Martin Paterson the man of the match again. When you win a cup tie 2-0 and your centre forward gets both goals it is hard not to. But again he impressed me very much with his all round game, his willingness to make runs throughout, as well as his goals.
But there has to be a special mention for the oft maligned Stephen Jordan. He was the pick of our defence on Saturday at left back, and tonight after being moved into the centre was very close to picking up that man of the match tag. His confidence looked shattered at times last season, a few more performances like this and we might just see a very different Stephen Jordan.
But for now, we await tonight's draw to see who we get - a home game would be nice.
The teams were;
Bury: Wayne Brown, Paul Scott, Efe Sodje, Ben Futcher, David Buchanan, Elliott Bennett, Brian Barry-Murphy, Stephen Dawson (Richard Baker 84), Michael Jones, Andy Bishop, Glynn Hurst (Andy Morrell 65). Subs not used: Ryan Cresswell, Danny Racchi, Ricky Anane, Cameron Belford, Domaine Rouse.
Yellow cards: Ben Futcher.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Christian Kalvenes (Michael Duff 84), Joey Gudjonsson (Kevin McDonald 86), Chris McCann, Wade Elliott, Chris Eagles, Robbie Blake (Alan Mahon 67), Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Remco van der Schaaf, Alex MacDonald, Ade Akinbiyi.
Yellow cards: None.
Referee: Scott Mathieson (Stockport).
Attendance: 4,276 (including 2,069 Clarets).