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The Clarets made just one change from the side beaten by Crystal Palace bringing in Tony Grant for Richard Chaplow who took Grant’s place on a yet again four man bench.
The two former Clarets in the Chesterfield line up, David Reeves and Steve Blatherwick both received warm applause from the Burnley supporters but the evening was not to last too long for Blatherwick. With just twelve minutes gone he collided with his own team mate Alan O’Hare and O’Hare’s reaction immediately suggested there was a serious problem.
The Chesterfield physio was quickly followed by stretcher bearers, a doctor and paramedics and he was finally put onto a stretcher and taken off before going to hospital. He certainly looked to be out cold as he was taken down the tunnel with a blood stained face.
The game had got off to a reasonably lively start but this seemed to change things and there was very little to enthuse about for the rest of the half with the Clarets struggling to make any real progress against the Spirites defence whilst the home side too often looked content just to hold us rather than force the pace. In fact it was something of a relief when the half time whistle blew.
The second half was completely different and when the players look back on it they will wonder just how on earth the game went to extra time. Chesterfield started stronger than us for the first few minutes and then we got into our stride with most of the attacking being done down our right wing with Robbie Blake, Luke Chadwick and Glen Little constantly involved as the three of them continually swapped positions.
There were spells when the game appeared to be played in and around the Chesterfield box as we forced corner after corner. In fact over the duration of the game we won ourselves a massive total of 30 corners.
But no matter what we tried we just couldn’t get the breakthrough although we really should have done and did miss chances. Glen Little was put clean through and should have scored but delayed his shot too long. He was fouled though and it was a clear penalty but the referee didn’t see it that way and allowed play to continue as the ball rolled agonisingly on to the post.
Luke Chadwick had a one on one with the keeper but never looked confident enough to finish it off whilst Tony Grant, finding some form tonight, hit a stunning drive from outside the box that rattled the bar.
The lack of a striker was so evident though and you just wondered how we could have possibly failed to score had we had someone in the box able to get onto the end of the constant stream of quality balls in.
It didn’t happen though and when referee Robinson brought normal time to an end we were still all square at 0-0.
After the excitement of the last 30 minutes of normal time the extra thirty minutes were to prove less entertaining although Robbie Blake could and should have given us an early lead only to put his shot over the bar on an unguarded net after being set up by Luke Chadwick.
In the second period it was Chesterfield who probably produced the best effort but Brian Jensen who had looked sound all night made an excellent stop low to his right.
It looked evident for most of the extra half hour that this was likely to go to penalties and so it did. Glen Little had taken the captain’s arm band when Graham Branch went off with an injury but he didn’t make a very good job of tossing up. He lost the first toss for choice of ends and then the second meaning Chesterfield were to go first with the penalties at the home end.
Chris Brandon took the first spot kick only to see it well saved by Jensen but the Burnley keeper had moved forward off his line (remember us telling you last week this is one thing that referees have been told to clamp down on).
Brandon got another chance and scored as did Paul Weller for Burnley and that was 1-1. Up stepped Andy Payne and he hit his right down the middle but Dean West made no mistake and that was 2-2.
Mark Hudson took Chesterfield’s third and this was well saved by Jensen but then our own regular penalty taker Robbie Blake saw Carl Muggleton go to his left to save so that was still 2-2 with three penalties gone.
Glynn Hurst missed, hitting his effort some distance over the bar, and then Glen Little scored so Burnley led 3-2 with one each to take. If Chesterfield missed or we scored (and Richard Chaplow was our last man) then we were through.
Richard never had to leave the centre circle as Jensen, now hearing the chant of Denmark’s Number One, from the Burnley supporters, saved yet again this time from Ian Evatt to see us through 3-2 with one still to take.
Jensen, castigated by many on Sunday, was the hero on the night making two legitimate saves plus the one when a retake was ordered. He was mobbed by his team mates and Stan made his way as far as the centre circle to great his big keeper and shake his hand.
It wasn’t a great performance and given the amount of play we had there were far too few goal scoring opportunities. Tonight though that didn’t matter, we just needed to get through. With the paltry 2,928 attendance we probably wouldn’t have made enough to pay for the use of the team coach had we gone out with no further interest in the competition.
In there we are though and we can now wait until Saturday afternoon to hear who we play next as we embark hopefully on another cup run.
Lee Roche had a good game and linked up well with the right hand side of the field where Blake, Little and Chadwick were often occupied and he also made some excellent challenges as Chesterfield threatened to put us under pressure.
There is no doubt that Jensen played well but for me the Man of the Match was Robbie Blake who at times had the Chesterfield defence at sixes and sevens. That play needs to be able to create more chances and more goals though and against this Chesterfield side we shouldn’t have failed to score.
The object of the exercise though was to progress into the second round and that is just where we are heading.
The teams,
Chesterfield: Carl Muggleton, Alan O’Hare, Kevin Dawson, Steve Blatherwick (Gareth Davies 12), Steve Payne, Mark Allott, Glynn Hurst, Mark Hudson, Chris Brandon, David Reeves (Andy Rushbury 115), Ian Evatt. Subs not used: Andy Richmond, Stephen Warne, Jez Mitchell.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Graham Branch (Dean West 118), Arthur Gnohere, Mo Camara, Luke Chadwick, Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Glen Little, Robbie Blake, Alan Moore (Richard Chaplow 98). Subs not used: Paul Scott, Matt O’Neill.
Referee: Paul Robinson (Hull).