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This one's for Ade
Last Updated : 19-Oct-2005 by
The goal came just past the hour, as Ade touched in a Wade Elliott effort from close range although Elliott’s shot looked to be on its way in. And from that moment on we never really looked in much danger of losing the lead against a Leicester side that hardly looks one of the better teams in this division.
A win was the furthest thing from our minds as we sat through a first half that could, if we were being polite, be labelled as tedious. It was though forty-five minutes of garbage with neither side ever looking capable of putting anything together such as mounting an attack.
It was free of any incident and the only likely scoring in that first half was referee Lee Probert adding to his yellow card collection. He didn’t disappoint and very harshly added the names of Micah Hyde and Frank Sinclair to his growing collection, Hyde’s will now keep him out of the cup tie at Villa next week.
If there is to be a list of incidents in that first half then it probably starts and ends with a chance that fell to Elvis Hammond, but the Leicester forward dallied just long enough for John McGreal to get back and make a challenge.
That was it, nothing else happened, other than Ade being booed every time he went within yards of the ball although that wasn’t too often. It certainly silenced the crisp bowl and this has to be the worst half of football I’ve seen at this level for a long, long time.
The half time interval at least provided us with some entertainment as the Burnley subs warmed up with a game that looked to leave Duane Courtney somewhat vulnerable on the goal line, the five of them seemed to be enjoying themselves, probably relieved to be well away from the dressing room. That was at one end of the ground, at the other a kids game looked considerably more entertaining than anything that had gone on previously.
Now something must have been put in the half time cup of tea in there, well certainly in the away team dressing room because we came out for the second half looking a different proposition altogether and within seconds of the restart had a shot at goal, thus improving on our final total of shots in the first half.
That came from James O’Connor, it was saved comfortably by Rab Douglas, one of Leicester’s many SPL rejects, but it set the pattern for the second half as Burnley got themselves on top.
Suddenly we were stringing passes together without giving the ball away almost immediately and we were getting midfield players further up the field to support Ade, particularly Wade ‘Fred’ Elliott who had looked like little boy lost in the first half, I say he had looked like little boy lost.
Leicester weren’t able to respond and the Clarets were running the midfield with the two O’Connors causing the home defence some anxious moments. When the goal did come though neither of the Dublin born midfielders were directly involved, although our two other former Bournemouth players certainly were.
John Spicer, who had not been anywhere near his best, played a superb ball out to Elliott on the right hand side. He got past that frighteningly ugly full back from Blackburn Nils-Eric Johansson and shot past Douglas.
Just as it looked as though Wade had given us the lead, up popped Ade to make sure it went in, with some of us immediately checking the assistant’s flag to make sure he wasn’t offside. He wasn’t and we were in front and in truth it was a lead we never looked like surrendering until the final few minutes of pressure.
One could have been two on a couple of occasions and none more so than when Spicer broke down the inside right channel. He had time and space but instead of going for it he tried to hit a ball to Ade and got it wrong, the chance was gone.
The home side made substitutions, but they made no difference, that happened when Burnley started to make changes, bringing on more defenders in the closing minutes, which did nothing but hand the initiative to Leicester. It did though hand a debut to Duane Courtney.
Leicester had never threatened to score against us but in those last few minutes Brian Jensen had to make a good save from a header, I wonder if Morten Olsen was watching, and then there was a scramble on the line but we were able to get it clear.
Anything but a win would have been the wrong result, having wiped out the memory of that first half we were much the better side in the second half against a Leicester side that looks ill equipped to me to play at this level. I suspect Levein won’t last there much longer given the job he’s done in the first year.
We were just thankful to come home with the points, see ourselves in 14th place, and just four points behind the play off teams. And we don’t have to watch Mark de Vries every week.
The league is tight though and looking at the table this morning we can see that had we beaten Leeds on Saturday we would now be 8th, just a point behind the play offs, but then having lost to Leeds, had we lost last night we would now be sat in 19th place, just a point above the relegation side.
But let’s be all Adie Boothroyd today and be upward looking – yes, just four points from the play offs with three wins from the last four games.
As much as I would like to give Ade the man of the match I have to go into the midfield, it was there we saw such a change in the second half. Again both O’Connors did well but I felt Micah Hyde was back to his best last night in that second half, despite the fact that Probert had made it difficult for him to tackle.
And a final word about Probert, just three bookings all of which looked very harsh, but when the bad foul came on Duane Courtney there was not even a word for the guilty player. Someone said some of these referees understand the rules but they don’t understand the game, it is a fitting testimony for this Gloucester official.
We’re off to Palace now – they lost against Brighton so will be fired up. They are beatable though, we just cannot afford another first half like the one at Leicester.
The teams were,
Leicester: Rab Douglas, Richard Stearman, Dion Dublin, Patrick McCarthy, Nils-Eric Johansson (Danny Tiatto 69), Momo Sylla, Stephen Hughes, Patrick Kisnorbo, Joe Hamill (Joey Gudjonsson 78), Elvis Hammond (Iain Hume 60), Mark de Vries. Subs not used: Paul Henderson, Patrik Gerrbrand.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Keith Lowe 80), James O’Connor, Micah Hyde, John Spicer (Duane Courtney 89), Garreth O’Connor (Gifton Noel-Williams 90), Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Chris McCann, Karl Bermingham.
Referee: Lee Probert (Gloucestershire).
Attendance: 23,326.
