The Heat is On

Star Geezer - Luke Chadwick

On paper Stan's first choice eleven, though youthful, looked OK as the teams took to a carpet like Turf Moor in the airless, baking heat of over 32C, a pity he couldn't even fill the subs bench, with only four names to make up the numbers.

There was no real hint of the problems to come as the game began brightly, Chadwick felled by returning Palace keeper Clarke after only fifteen seconds, a linesman's flag coming to the rescue of the fortunate keeper. Within a minute, beasty boy Jensen, reacted quickly to keep out a snapshot from Johnson but there were only five minutes on the clock when the first goal came courtesy of a penalty after a tug on Freedman by Roche was spotted by ref Foy.

Somehow the huge frame of Jensen dived over Freedman's low struck but poorly placed kick and Palace were in front. Ten minutes on and the Nationwide's first red card was awarded, Routledge's last man haul down of Chadwick rightly earning a red card, despite the earliness of the offence. After consulting his linesman ref Foy changed from his initial award of a second penalty in the game to one of a free kick right on the edge of the area. Clarke's wall gave way and Blake's shot went straight into the bottom corner for a crisp equaliser; game on.

Understandably in the conditions Palace adopted a defensive line up, content to sit behind the ball as Clarets though neat in their approaches, clearly had not a clue when the ball arrived in the area, the ploy of playing Alan Moore as a lone striker indicative of desperation.

Roche showed the way to goal as Clarets took the lead on only twenty minutes. Neat work from Blake resulted in his cross field pass finding Roche, who, after chesting the ball, allowed it bounce before unleashing a terrific strike into Clarke's top right hand corner, cue Tom Hark and a brief spell of happiness.

Things looked up for Clarets, further disruption for the visitors as an injured Symons being replaced by Borrowdale and as Clarets enjoyed the freedom of the right wing, where Roche and Chadwick worked well, it was Chadwick who took the eye, with calm, assured control and a confidence on the ball not often seen from a Clarets midfielder in recent times.

Sadly, the Clarets let the lead slip and on the half hour a sloppy pass from Weller saw possession conceded. Still there should have been little difficulty for Branch, Camara and Jensen who was hardly an interceptor when foolishly deciding to leave his line. Freedman beat both Camara and Branch, Jensen was not on the button and Freedman couldn't believe his luck when all he had to do was roll the ball into the unguarded net, easy.

Cue walking pace tactics from Palace and a clueless home side without a game plan. Half time therefore arrived to the sight of Burnley cheerleaders in blue and bloody white of all uniforms, increased catering fees and doom and gloom merchants every where. Oh and the tannoy can now be heard from Manchester airport, so that's very useful.

Star Gazer - Arthur Gnohere

Chaplow and Weller as Clarets centre midfield could be renamed plot and lost, such was their inability to either a) control a ball or b) distribute effectively and Clarets forward moves focused on the overworked Chadwick or the over elaboration of Little and Blake who were determined not to let the ball do any of the work, much to most people's frustrations, it was rapidly turning into one of the all too familiar afternoons.

Clarke was brought into the game again when saving from Blake on the hour mark, this the last serious attempt at goal mustered by the Clarets before Watson was replaced by Riihilarti, cue five minutes of water bottle exchange time.

Twenty minutes and sloppiness from Camara allowed Johnson time to fire a shot cum cross at Jester, whose fumble allowed the ball to loop up and over to the far post where an unmarked Freedman gladly collected his hat trick, nodding home from all of three yards. Inside a minute Clarets had another lifeline, when Derry was red carded for a foul on Weller, the visitors now down to nine men.

The loss of another player seemed to affect the Clarets more than their visitors and as the game progressed so the home side's ideas evaporated, long balls and loose passes becoming all too frequent and the visiting defence were to have an easy time of it.

Grant replaced an ineffective Weller, Smith replaced sub Borrowdale before Arthur was booked for ...., well just being Arthur, his concentration span still as long as that of a goldfish.

West replaced Chaplow, allowing Branch to operate as a striker before Jester pulled off a good one handed save to keep the score down, before Alan Moore left to be replaced by O'Neill.

Bereft of ideas for the last ten minutes and with the pack well and truly reshuffled, it was simply an awful end to the game and almost with relief LED man somehow managed only to find three minutes of extra time. The Palace fans were quite rightly singing their admiration for their team. Sadly for the home side the vast numbers shaking their heads was all too familiar a sight. Boos for the opening game, it's all too reminiscent of last season.

FT - Clarets 2 - 3 Palace

Att:- 12,976 with 91% attending.

Arthur Gnohere from many candidates. An uninspiring ninety minutes of under performance. Jumped under just about every header and an understanding of central defence as is my familiarity of Russian ballet. Apart from a considerable weight loss since last season, there is room for much improvement.

On this evidence, the Man Utd crew seem fine. Chadwick and Roche worked well together and down Clarets right operated quite effectively with Little in a wandering, cameo role. Going forwards the new look youthful Clarets seem to have more pace and creativity.

Luke Chadwick. A promising first half, in which his countless runs were effective and largely productive. Amazing how good players are always able to find time and space. Understandably tired in the second half but seeing as few of his team mates were interested in competing, the bottle of bubbly was deservedly awarded.

From the team that conceded 89 goals last time out and with the worst home defence in the League, this was the result of four months preparations. The optimism built up from the pre-season went out of the window after watching this sorry performance. The size of the squad and the lack of quality in key areas, particularly in defence, leaves this side as an invertebrate one until new faces arrive. One swallow may not make a summer, but one bad performance sure does take a long time to get to sleep from.