Top half Clarets get home win on Sky

It came courtesy of a goal just before the half hour which is as good a goal as we have seen all season as Ade Akinbiyi, against his former manager the Legend Peter Taylor, took the ball with his back to goal just inside the box before turning superbly and hitting a low shot into the bottom corner to the keeper’s right.

Things had hardly been exciting before then and there was little to excite the home crowd, certainly in the first twenty minutes, as we struggled to get going. And we could have gone a goal behind but for an excellent save from Brian Jensen as he tipped an early effort away to his right.

It was clear what sort of game it was going to be. Hull are a big side and very much at you all the time, and it took us some time to get going against a side who hadn’t had a midweek game. We started to play a bit in the few minutes before the goal and from the moment when Jon Harley knocked the ball in for what proved to be the winner from Ade it all changed.

It certainly gave us some confidence and deflated the visitors, and within a couple of minutes we came so close to doubling the lead as Myhill, in the Hull goal, failed to hold a ball from the right. It dropped for Garreth O’Connor and as we all prepared to celebrate goal number two it agonisingly went wide of the post.

The Clarets got on top after this and were much the better side for the remainder of the first half, we put the Hull defence under some pressure and with any luck at all would have scored at least one more goal that would have probably seen us through to a comfortable victory.

Referee Phil Dowd was close to blowing his half time whistle when suddenly there were chances at both ends. Firstly Jensen ended the first half as he started it with a cracking save and then it was straight down the other end where we were halted only by a Hull player handling the ball in the box. It could so easily have been a penalty.

A half time lead and we had improved as the first half had progressed; we needed to keep that up during the second half against a side who clearly have a problem scoring goals.

That second half saw a surprise change right from the start with the Clarets electing to change the system and go to a 4-4-2 formation with Gifton Noel-Williams coming on up front in place of John Spicer. There had been no suggestion of an injury and it was definitely a tactical change by Steve Cotterill.

There’s no doubt we got a brighter start to this half with both sides having chances. Our best two fell to Gifton but he failed to find the target with two headers. The first of them was admittedly difficult but he should have buried the second one as he got on the end of a cross from Elliott.

Gifton had started brightly but this seemed to signal the end of it and he was far from effective for the rest of the game. Wade however was showing us so much more than he has done previously and got a number of good balls into the box and also linked up well with Michael Duff down the right hand side.

Down at the other end the best chance for Hull had come after a mistake by Jon Harley had let them in but they came more into the game after a shot from Stuart Elliott hit the bar. They started to put us under pressure but help came from the unlikeliest of sources, Hull manager Peter Taylor who took off Chris Brown and replaced him with Ben Burgess.

Brown had been giving us problems but Burgess looked anything but the part although he should have equalised with a header but put it wide.

The Clarets were defending deeper and deeper and rather than relieve it as the clock ticked down, we brought on defender Duane Courtney for Wade Elliott. It was reminiscent of the days when Stan used to bring on Ronnie Jepson and we would defend in the first few rows of the stand.

It really allowed Hull to put us under more pressure but we defended well and they didn’t create too much in the way of chances. We got through the ninety minutes plus the three that referee Dowd, who had a poor second half, had allowed but it kept on going and with almost another minute added a gilt edged chance fell to Stuart Elliott.

It looked a goal all the way but Jensen made his best save of the night, a fantastic reaction save to his left and there wasn’t even time to take the corner as the final whistle blew. The Beast had won the Man of the Match vote from the sponsors, I had him in second place behind captain Frank Sinclair, but this last save clinched it for me and he deserved the applause from the crowd at the end, he really had turned in a faultless display.

Some will say we were fortunate to win, and in some ways we were. Hull created enough chances to have won it but so did we and for a spell either side of half time we were much the better side. If we did have some good luck, then so be it, it is deserved and that goal from Ade Akinbiyi deserved to be the winning goal.

We can all sit back now and relax and watch the results come in over the weekend. I don’t like Friday night football but when you win and climb six places up the league it is worth it. We might drop back a few places before we take on Millwall on Tuesday but for now who cares – we’ll just keep looking at the table.

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Keith Lowe, Frank Sinclair, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott (Duane Courtney 88), John Spicer (Gifton Noel-Williams 45), Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Garreth O’Connor (Chris McCann 90), Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Danny Karbassiyoon, Nathan Dyer.

Hull: Boaz Myhill, Mark Lynch, Leon Cort, Damien Delaney, Roland Edge (Nick Barmby 63), Ryan France, Curtis Woodhouse (Stuart Green 74), John Welsh, Stuart Elliott, Craig Fagan, Chris Brown (Ben Burgess 56). Subs not used: Matt Duke, Kevin Ellison.

Referee: Phil Dowd (Stoke-on-Trent).

Attendance: 11,701.