Game over
By Jon Woolfe
Looking round Turf Moor (or should that be Turf Morgue) at about 7.44pm, not
a City 'Orn to be seen, so I'll do
the honours on reporting duties again! Having made a mental note therefore
to concentrate more than usual...there isn't much to say. Burnley scored with
their first attack after a couple of minutes and really that was that - game over. A neat
through-ball bypassed Robbo and Vega and Glenn Little curled it past
Alec and just inside the far post.
We had a couple of good chances in the first half - a good shot by Paolo
from thirty-five yards after he broke from midfield, and a chance for Heidar that he
should have put away. We had a fair share of possession but although the gap was only one goal, it
always looked more likely that Burnley would score again rather than us peg
them back. Indeed in the second half, they had three separate shouts for penalties that
weren't given but all looked from our end and from the reaction of their fans to
be fair claims.
At the back, Alec did okay and couldn't have done much about the goal. Coxy
was our best player, and the rest of the defence Robbo, Ramon and Issa were
the familiar mix of the occasional good tackle combined with a more than
occasional misplaced pass or poor marking.
In the middle, Paolo, Micah and Hughes all had spells of looking good but
without much to show for it in terms of creating chances for Heidar and
Tommy, who both worked hard but had little service.
On the right-hand side, Lloyd Doyley, although you want to give him the
benefit of the doubt as a young home-grown lad with only a few games under
his belt, again failed to convince that he was what it takes to succeed at
this level in the near future.
Sadly Steven Glass was sat about ten seats away from me in the stand, rather
than on our left-wing, presumably injured. The pitch could have been twenty
yards narrower down the left hand-side and Watford wouldn't have noticed, so
little did we use this flank.
Gayle and Nordin came on after an hour and Noble for the last fifteen minutes,
but none of them made an impression.
Burnley fans taunted "Is that all you take away?"...and, numbering about two hundred,
they had a point. But then the team aren't doing anything to inspire using
up those precious half days for fans to make the trip.
Ironic Moment of The Night. On a rare Watford attack, the ball was crossed
in towards Robbo who had made a run towards the far post, but he was beaten
to it by a Burnley defender who chested the ball firmly and accurately into
the arms of his waiting keeper. You could see the agony on Robbo's face as
he relived what he should have done on Saturday at Stockport.
On the whole, a disappointing but predictable performance and result. Burnley
were a bit better than us in every department. Burnley aren't that great but
they're an effective team, and that might be all it takes to go up in this
year's weak division. As for us, the whingers will continue to whinge and
Luca will continue to talk about working hard and gelling.
On to Gillingham for our best hope of three points between now and Christmas,
and some Perpetuini-baiting that we always wanted to do when he played for
us but couldn't when he was in a yellow shirt.
