We're still waiting

Last updated : 17 October 2010 By Tony Scholes
Dean Marney
Dean Marney - first Burnley goal
I used to call it the graveyard, and with some justification. Until 2008, we hadn't won there since 1973 and after winning promotion in 2000 we went on to suffer six successive defeats there with all but one of them fully justified.

So a draw there, despite having drawn and won the previous two, should, in so many ways, be celebrated. This one I'm afraid won't be and with some justification. We simply threw it away, got it back, and then threw it away again.

There were so many positives to take from the performance. We were the better side and we scored three goals, yet that's just not good enough if you are going to give three soft ones away at the other end.

Needless to say the result has brought the anti-Laws crew back to fore, yet I can only assume none of them were there yesterday because there is not a lot any manager can do when his players commit that sort of suicide.

This ground, Turf Moor apart, was the first I ever saw Burnley win at. Even so, I never make the journey there with any confidence and I'd most definitely have taken a point when I left for the game.

The team was as I expected with Leon Cort replacing the suspended Clarke Carlisle in a line up that was otherwise unchanged. With injuries also hitting the squad the bench just about picked itself with Alex-Ray Harvey also on duty at the ground and it was good to see another of our up and coming young players involved during the warm up.

Brian Jensen made an eye catching save early in the game but overall the first half was ours and we should have had a lead to take into half time. We played some good stuff and we dominated the midfield area where all three played well. Dean Marney started slowly but soon got into it, Wade Elliott was very influential and behind them was Jack Cork who I don't think I saw give the ball away.

You have to take your chances when they come and that's where we went wrong. The best of them fell to Andre Bikey. When we win a corner these days there is some confidence that we might produce something and here again we should have done. A right wing corner found Bikey at the back post but his header downwards wasn't good enough and it bounced over the bar.

Soon after, Chris Eagles, again in top form, linked with Elliott down the right hand side and when Eagles got the ball into the box it should have provided Chris Iwelumo with his first away goal. He didn't get a touch, not for the first time on our travels this season. At home, he's putting those chances away without a problem.

And so 0-0 at half time but it should have been better and the home side should have been coming out with a mountain to climb. In the opening minutes of the second half we created that mountain but not before Jensen had been forced into a save to keep out Mark Yeates, Sheffield United's best player on the day.

The opener came four minutes in and provided midfielder Marney with his first Burnley goal as he combined with Eagles who was in possession of the ball on the right wing. Eagles turned back on the defender and crossed expertly for Marney coming in at the near post to head home, getting in ahead of Steve Simonsen.

It was the perfect start to the half and five minutes later things got even better. Tyrone Mears, who was having a very mixed afternoon, got into the Blades' box on our right. where he was pushed over by Ritchie De Laet.

Referee Ilderton deliberated for what seemed an age, but it now appears he might not even have been giving in but for the intervention of the assistant. Thankfully he did, quite correctly, point to the spot and new penalty taker Eagles made no mistake with his second in three games.

I jokingly asked if it was nearly time; I'd certainly have settled for going home at that point with a 2-0 win, but we didn't keep that lead anywhere near long enough - three minutes to be exact.

"It's just like Wem-ber-lee", the Burnley fans began to sing. That was just about the prompt for Mears to slip and let in Daniel Bogdanovic who pulled one back. Now it didn't look nearly so comfortable.

We were subdued, they were on the up with the home fans, having by now given up with Annie's Song, getting behind them. We had a difficult few minutes but came through it without any further damage, other than an injury to Danny Fox.

It could have been for Fox. He collected the injury committing a foul and it was one that some referees might have seen as red. There was clearly no intent, but he was late and I'm sure the watching Clarke Carlisle would have had thoughts on it given he was sent off for something an nothing at Millwall.

David Edgar came on for Fox but struggled to settle in that left back berth. However, we saw them off and were more than holding our own.

Laws made a double substitution, replacing Iwelumo and Eagles with Steven Thompson and Ross Wallace. I suspected it might be Jay Rodriguez going off rather than Eagles, but the former Manchester United player is still carrying an injury and was receiving treatment during the warm up. With two home games this week maybe it was the right time for him to come off.

Indeed, it was close to being the perfect change as Wallace set up Rodriguez who couldn't get enough power or direction on his header leaving Simonsen with a comfortable save.

I didn't see them coming back at this stage but then, with eight minutes remaining, they did just that. I have to agree with the manager's view that we did drop far too deep at times and invite them in and eventually, after winning the ball from Elliott, they got it across from our right for Matthew Lowton, whose only contribution as a substitute was having been yellow carded, to score.

It was, without doubt, a sickener, and in all honesty I only saw one winner at that point. It wasn't us either. But credit where credit is due and we came back and grabbed what surely had to be the winner in the very last minute of stoppage time.

It was all down to Mears who cut in from the right and brought the ball across just outside the box looking for an opening. When he couldn't find one he saw Jay Rod in space on the right hand side of the box and played the ball through for the striker to bury the ball into the bottom corner right in front of the Burnley fans.

As we celebrated the fourth official held up the board for five extra minutes and the countdown started. Incredibly we got through another twice. First, Jack Cork got a shooting chance but put it just wide and then Steven Thompson was stopped by a perfect last ditch tackle by Chris Morgan.

Three and a half minutes gone at that point, but from that challenge they got the ball forward where former Claret Stephen Jordan got it and played it into Yeates. He got between Bikey and Marney and put in a shot that Jensen didn't seem too concerned about until it hit the net.

This one was harder to take than the exocet from Kink at Middlesbrough and when the final whistle blew soon after it really did feel like a defeat.

We're eighth now in the table, and the criticism has started. "How long do we give him?" said one message board poster regarding Laws, and yet, incredibly, had that last ditch goal not gone in we would be sitting here in fourth place in the table. I think that answers his question.

Another suggested it was time for him to go because we'd only won four of the first eleven games. I'd agree we need a better win ratio than that, but two years ago we'd won exactly the same number of games from the first eleven.

We had done more than enough to win that game yesterday, but individual errors had cost us dearly and although things could, and should, be better I'd rather look at the statistics that we've lost just twice this season and are now unbeaten in six league and cup games.

There is no doubt that we do need to start winning away games because the longer this goes, the longer we remain under pressure to win our home games. Still, we won just twice in the first fourteen away games in 1999/2000 season and we came out of that one with an automatic promotion.

The teams yesterday were;

Sheffield United: Steve Simonsen, Jean Calve, Nyron Nosworthy, Chris Morgan, Ritchie De Laet (Stephen Jordan 85), Johnny Ertl (Matthew Lowton 78), Leon Britton, Mark Yeates, Daniel Bogdanovic (Ched Evans 69), Richard Cresswell, Stephen Quinn. Subs not used: Richard Wright, Nick Montgomery, Kyle Bartley, Jordan Slew.
Yellow Cards: Leon Britton, Matthew Lowton.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Leon Cort, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox (David Edgar 66), Jack Cork, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney, Jay Rodriguez, Chris Iwelumo (Steven Thompson 74), Chris Eagles (Ross Wallace 75). Subs not used: Lee Grant, Richard Eckersley, Graham Alexander, Martin Paterson.
Yellow Cards: Jay Rodriguez, Danny Fox.

Referee: Eddie Ilderton (Tyne & Wear).

Attendance: 22,936.