Three points and that is exactly what was needed

Last updated : 21 April 2004 By Tony Scholes

Paul Weller - excellent for the hour he was on the pitch
It never was going to be a classic and there is no doubt that there was a nervousness amongst the crowd before kick off. Under normal circumstances losing to Franchise is an embarrassment, tonight for Burnley it would have been unthinkable and a disaster.

We didn’t lose though and despite playing pretty badly at times we beat probably the worst side that I have ever seen play at this level of English football. This lot will once again be down at the bottom of their division next season.

As for the Clarets we struggled to get a team out but despite the injuries Luke Chadwick was still dropped after the defeat at Cardiff. Still without the likes of Ian Moore and Neil Wood we also had to play without Tony Grant who will now miss the rest of the season and what a loss that is.

Lenny Johnrose stepped in for Grant whilst Paul Weller came in on the left hand side of midfield for Chadwick. Otherwise we were unchanged.

If there was a nervousness in the stands then there certainly was on the pitch during the opening period of the game but we certainly stamped our authority on proceedings with both Richard Chaplow and Johnrose giving away nothing in the midfield area and winning tackles galore.

Right from the start it was clear that Franchise basically had nothing to offer but we didn’t even have a shot at goal in the first twenty minutes. We should have done when Graham Branch was put through but an awful first touch meant the chance disappeared.

He made amends in our next attack when he scored to give us the lead. The impressive Paul Weller hit in a cross from the edge of the box on the left hand side that was met by Glen Little. His ball back across came off the keeper and into the air and Branch headed in from just a couple of yards out.

We nearly doubled our lead within a minute when Weller superbly found Glen on the right and then moved into the box for the cross but it went just behind him.

The crowd had now come to life as the Clarets went forward looking to kill the game off but incredibly Franchise nearly equalised when Gary Smith hit a shot against the post.

But we got the all important second in first half stoppage time and what a cracker it was. Brian Jensen started it with a kick out that was headed on by Branch. Blake chased it into the box but against two defenders he had no chance.

And he didn’t but the superbly named Henry Ntimban-Zeh headed it perfectly past his keeper and into the net.

Two up at half time, now all we needed to do was get at them and add a few more goals as we attacked the empty end of the ground. Well, almost empty, there were just over 30 Frannies sat up at the back.

Graham Branch - scored the crucial first goal
What should have been a 45 minute boost for the goal difference turned into as bad a 45 minutes football we have seen on the Turf for some time. We didn’t appear to be too bothered about that yet another four goals in the second half, and yes it could have been done against this lot, and we would have been a place higher in the league.

We did though allow them to have most of the possession knowing full well they were hardly going to do anything with it. In fact the nearest they came was from a David May back header that Jensen eventually collected.

Unfortunately we lost both Weller and Chappy who succumbed to the injuries but both had done as much as anyone to ensure we got the points. Alan Moore came first but then there was finally a debut for Joel Pilkington, over a year after he first sat on the bench.

Chadwick got on shortly afterwards when he replaced Robbie Blake, obviously Dele Adebola was only fit enough to sit on the bench again, but it was just a matter of counting down the minutes and collecting the points.

They takes us finally to 50 but that will not be enough this season and there are still more to be won. Three more performances similar to tonight will surely see us playing 2nd Division football next season but we’ll play better because we won’t come up against a side as bad as this again.

Man of the match for me was Paul Weller who for the hour he was on the field looked like the Weller of old despite playing out of position on the left hand side. Chappy was also very much back on form alongside the ball winning Johnrose.

Sadly there were some disappointing performances with Glen again leading the way with another passionless effort, where is the Glen that used to terrorise defenders?

Tonight though was all about how many points we got, we got three and could have done no more than that.

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, David May, Mark McGregor, Mo Camara, Glen Little, Richard Chaplow (Joel Pilkington 77), Lenny Johnrose, Paul Weller (Alan Moore 60), Robbie Blake, Graham Branch (Luke Chadwick 82). Subs not used: Nathan Abbey, Dele Adebola.

Franchise: David Martin, Peter Hawkins, Jason Puncheon, Henry Ntimban-Zeh, Dean Lewington, Malvin Kamara, Gary Smith, Nico Herzig, Ben Harding, Wade Small, Wayne Gray. Subs not used: Lee Worgan, Nick McKoy, Shola Oyedele, Jamie Mackie, Dean Holdsworth.

Referee: George Cain (Bootle).