The 2 nil win against QPR back in October, which saw the ‘ginger one’ cement his second manager of month award in succession, seems to be a far distant memory. It’s now 7 games in all competitions since that win, and it is no surprise that our recent form coincides with Marney only playing in 2 of those 7 games. The scoreless draw on Tuesday night against Watford once again saw Marney missing, Duff had to sit the game out due to suspension, whilst the Clarets impressive new addition into the England system, Danny Ings was out injured following a knock picked up at Huddersfield last Saturday. This was the third season on the run that Watford have gone away from the Turf with a point!
Now, whether you are the glass half full or half empty type of person (I’m half full personally), the fact that we have been picking up points, albeit at a much slower pace recently, and we were still third in the league before our game against Barnsley is a fantastic place to be – I’d challenge anyone reading this report not to feel proud of the fact that we are in this lofty position. Who’d have thought it when the season kicked off back in August?
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| Michael Kightly scored the winner with a superb left footed shot |
Barnsley came into yesterday’s game full of confidence and optimism after a battling away win against Brighton on Tuesday night. Ex Claret and Barnsley caretaker manager Micky Mellon said ahead of the match today “A win changes everything, and a good performance always gives the place a lift. I came in this morning and everyone was bouncing”. I wondered what the mood had been down at Gawthorpe since our midweek game against Watford, where we largely looked devoid of ideas and inspiration on the pitch, and the noise (or lack of) and unjustified abuse from the stands would hardly have made you feel good to be in the Burnley camp.
Referee James Adcock from Nottinghamshire officiated the game against our Yorkshire rivals and got us underway after an impeccably supported minute’s applause for the sad passing of Nelson Mandela last Thursday. Our line up saw several and very much welcomed changes to the squad. Both Duff and Ings returned to the starting 11, along with Kightly, at the expense of Long, Treacy and Stanislas, two of which dropped down to the bench. Barnsley started the game as expected with the same 11 that won midweek at Brighton.
With the game underway, an early long ball from Shackell to Ings allowed him to test Butland and put him under pressure, but this didn’t quite come off. The Clarets seemed to enjoy the better of the early possession and exchanges, with some good passing, and then in the 5th minute Vokes wasted a half chance when Danny Ings looked the better option to me. Soon after this, Vokes went on a bustling run through Barnsley’s defence, Perkins (Barnsley’s very own ‘blonde Pele’) intercepted and pushed the ball out wide to Kightly, he spun his man, made a pass to Jones who lined up a testing shot from just outside the 18 yard box. It was a good effort, and Butland saved it with a parry, only for it just to spin high and to the right of the on rushing Arfield.
10 minutes into the game, Barnsley’s Paddy McCourt, their best player for me, went on a mazy run through our non-existent midfield, with Stock, Jones, and Mee all left watching – Shackell and Duff weren’t well placed and when he slotted his perfectly weighted pass to Cywka, in front of the on rushing Trippier (who’s had 3 loan spells with our visitors in the past), the Barnsley midfielder should have done much better than he did, and the poor shot-come-save went out for the visitors first corner.
Barnsley were now starting to take more control of the game, they were dictating play through our non-existent looking midfield, with Stock in particular struggling to get a foot on the ball. It was at this point I noticed Dyche going ‘apoplectic’ on the touch line – god knows what his ‘war cry’ sounded like at half time!
Just before the half hour mark Danny Ings missed with a header after a superb Trippier cross. The rest of the half petered out without much to make note of, however our very own legend ‘Bertie Bee’ was possibly providing some of the best entertainment on the touchline. The whistle for half time went and once again areas of the crowd were needlessly restless, with some of the players going off with their heads down – I personally don’t like the jeering and putting the players down, but was sure we would come out all guns blazing.
Burnley emerged unchanged for the second half a good few minutes later than our visitors I would say – these are the times as a supporter where you would love to be a fly on the wall and know what was being said in the dressing room! We started brightly, with Stock intercepting play from the off, and then 5 mins into the half Ings was unlucky after good work around the box, soon followed by another decent shot from Jones. Burnley then started to lose their way a little after this positive start, when all we needed was that little bit of quality, that final simple pass.
That’s exactly what happened around the 65 minute mark when we went ahead. Trippier did what he does so well down the right, he battled with Cywka, got ahead of his man and then slipped the ball inside him to Kightly, who was drifting in on the edge of the 18 yard box. The next bit was brilliant. He cheekily let the ball roll right in front of him to wrong foot Perkins, before launching a superb left footed shot into the back of the net – Butland had no chance, in fact I don’t think I saw their keeper move!
The goal signalled a change for Barnsley and Etuhu was replaced with Scotland, who when I saw the size of him I thought I was watching the wrong sport … I will let you work out what I mean by that! Barnsley did make 2 further substitutions as the half went on to try and get back into this game. Burnley equally responded by replacing Stock with Edgar to shore things up.
In terms of action to note, Cywka tried a daring central free kick from halfway inside our half, but it was well covered and pushed over the bar by the once again excellent and rock solid Heaton. Then around 13 minutes from time, Arfield and Jones did play a little one two on the left side the visitors area. Arfield tried to lay the ball off to Stock but a Barnsley player intercepted and actually deflected the ball into Vokes path. He scuffed the shot beyond the on rushing Butland and into the back of the net courtesy of the far post – however, the official on the side line raised his flag immediately and the goal was deemed off side.
Apart from a weak penalty shout, the remainder of the game went by without any real drama to shout of. The referee, I thought, had a decent game and only handed out two yellow cards, one for each team (Stanislas for the Clarets, Tudgay for Barnsley). It’s not often I come off the Turf without some strong words about a ref, but well done to this guy, I thought he did well and was reasonably fair to both teams.
Given that Nelson Mandela sadly passed away on Thursday, England were drawn into the ‘group of death’ for the World Cup 2014 in Brazil on Friday, a hard fought Burnley win yesterday has certainly brought a large smile back to my face.
Results elsewhere have been kind to us today, and we find ourselves back on top of the table – I never thought I’d be writing to say a big thanks to Brighton and our neighbours down the road for their respective win and draw!!! We are off to the King Power Stadium and all things that revolve around potato crisps and Gary Lineker next ……. Our boys should be the ones ‘bouncing’ after today, so let’s go away next week, cheer on the mighty Clarets, and come home with all three points.
I really, really, really do like the feeling of it being Turf at the top.