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Tigers Tear Sorry Clarets Apart
Many fans believed that there could be nothing more than an improvement upon the 1-0 Boxing Day defeat to the hands of Barnsley. After arriving at the car park, I and two message board regulars went in search of food and beer, along the way bumping into two, perhaps overfriendly Hull supporters. Jdrobbo made us stay longer by asking questions such as “How do you believe Thatcherism has affected the football league?”, but soon we'd had our fish and chips and beer, gotten free of the friendly Hull folk and were inside the impressive KC stadium.
There was one change to the Burnley side which started at Barnsley, and it was quite a surprise, as Kyle Lafferty was dropped to the bench, to be replaced by Micah Hyde, Burnley continuing with a 4-4-2 but with Jones alongside Noel-Williams.
Straight from the kick-off Hull City came at us with power, and immediately we were edgy at the back, with some desperate and at times unorthodox clearing. However it took less than 5 minutes for Hull to take the lead. Fagan did the hard work as he went by Duff far too easily on the touchline and whipped in a low and hard cross for Marney to neatly strike home into the opposite corner, with three Burnley defenders looking on without marking a man. It was awful marking and defending from the Clarets, and before we had even got a proper touch of the ball, we were 1-0 down.
The game continued in the same way as Hull's size and power were far too much for our weak midfield and defence to cope with, and following even more frantic defending, it didn't take long for Hull to extend there lead, albeit from the penalty spot.
It all started from a free-kick to Burnley practically in the quadrant of the corner flag. The free-kick was taken by Brian Jensen, but was quickly won back by the Tigers. They broke quickly, and the Burnley defence got back to halt the attack, Thomas however sliced his clearance in the air, and as the ball came across the box, Harley clumsily brought down Barmby in the area. There will never be a more blatant penalty; however Harley did still protest that Barmby came from an offside position. The penalty was dispatched comfortably by Fagan, sending Jensen the wrong way, putting it to his left hand side.
Hull most certainly deserved their lead, and Cotterill instantly reacted to being 2-0 down, make a double substitution. Firstly it was the unfortunate Foster who was definitely not the worst defender on the pitch, he was replaced by a still not fully fit John McGreal. The second substitution bemused large sections of the crowd with him bringing off James O'Connor. Many thought Chris McCann should be the man sacrificed. Taking his place was Kyle Lafferty, as Jones pushed back into left midfield with Noel-Williams and Lafferty partnering upfront.
The first half slowly came to an end, with Burnley still needlessly hacking the ball in any which way possible. The corner count in favour of the Clarets kept increasing but it didn't matter how many crosses were put in the box, Hull were first to the ball every single time, apart from when Noel-Williams managed to get a header on target which was easily cleared off the line. As exciting as that was, trust me, it wasn't a chance. The Clarets tried desperately but in vain to get a goal before half-time, but it wasn't to be. The half-time whistle blew and the dejected Clarets trudged off the pitch to a chorus of boos from the away stand.
Steve Cotterill made his third and final substitution at half-time, bringing on Alan Mahon for a lacklustre Chris McCann. The change and the half-time team-talk seemed to encourage the clarets as they started very brightly, and our best spell came in the first five or six minutes of the second half. The first chance fell to Noel-Williams on the edge of the area, but his left foot shoot skewed wide and high, but then Burnley strung several passes together for the first time down on the left hand side, and the ball ended up with Noel-Williams on the corner of the 6 yard box, he quickly, turned and shot and if it wasn't for a fantastic save from Myhill in the Hull goal the deficit would have been halved. From that a flurry of corners came along with the odd poor shot from Mahon and Elliott, but soon Hull got a grip of the game again, and you just knew that our chance had gone.
It was all Hull from then and if it wasn't for the Beast in goal, the score would have been much, much greater. After Hull worked a neat move down the right hand side a ball was squared and a shot looking destined for the goal was superbly saved by Jensen to his left. Following that he saved a one on one, and then pushed another player one on one wide and out of play. On top of that Hull also missed a sitter from about 6 yards out hitting the crossbar.
The only other action down at the Burnley end was a chance close to the 90th minute which Lafferty had. The shot was deflected and produced a wonderful save by Myhill in the Hull goal to preserve the clean sheet.
Make no bones about it, this was an absolute shocker of a performance, and it's now been five points from a possible 30, if we're not careful our wonderful start might not even be enough. Where are we going to score from? Aand we can't stop conceding, it's worrying for a Burnley side that looked so promising at the start of the season.
There were several performances today which simply were not good enough, Chris McCann, Wayne Thomas and Steve Jones in particular for me need to take a long hard look at themselves, they simply can't continue putting in such inept performances. There was only one man of the match for me today, and that was Brian Jensen, if it wasn't for him today, the score could have been incredibly embarrassing. 2-0 most definitely flattered us today.
Roll on January and hopefully some encouraging loan or permanent signings!
Finally from me, I'd like to wish every one of you health in the New Year and to have a wonderful 2007.