The Bluebirds went into the match seemingly full of confidence after an excellent 3-2 win away to Wolves at the weekend; and named a side with just one change from the team that did so well in the Black Country. On-loan man Gary O’Neil coming in for Willie Boland in the centre of midfield. Presumably Lawrence’s thinking was that Kavanagh is suspended for the Leeds game and Boland will regain his place then.
Warner; Williams, Vidmar, Gabbidon, Barker; McAnuff, O’Neil, Kavanagh, Parry; Lee, Thorne.
The bench signalled our intentions from the start with no recognised strikers – Boland, Bullock, Robinson, Collins and Margetson making up the five. Andy Campbell was relegated to “17th man” and sat at the front of the away end in the first half.
The home side came into the game off the back of a run of draws and a penalties win vs Wolves in the Carling Cup. The crowd was poor, but this didn’t stop ridiculous all ticket restrictions being placed on the away end, even though it was a “one man and his dog” affair.
The game started scrappily, and never really got any better. The small City following of around 300 diehard fans quickly spotted Richard Duffy (on loan from Portsmouth) in the Burnley defence and he was mercilessly taunted with “You Jack B*stard” chants for pretty much the whole game. He did give us a clap at the end though, so was clearly expecting the stick when it came.
Robbie Blake is clearly Burnley’s best player, and seems to always be their man on the scoresheet, and you could see why. After a defensive error by the out of sorts Vidmar, Warner stood up well and blocked his early shots.
City came back into the game after the early onslaught and O’Neil quickly showed that he is a good player as he tried to get some passing moves going. The number of times we gave the ball away in the game was incredible, and the lack of movement up front and in midfield was poor. The workrate and effort was always there, but we always looked like we were lacking something when we got to the final third, and this was reflected by the lack of clear chances that were created in the game.
Thorne skewed a shot wide, and O’Neil hit a long range effort which was palmed away by Coyne in the Burnley goal.
Alan Lee worked hard, then (as always) looked knackered after 20 minutes, and was shown up for his lack of pace on a couple of occasions where he couldn’t get a decent effort in on goal when set up.
Burnley were restricted to long range efforts themselves, a number of shots going wide past the post in the opening period.
The rain started to fall, and a number of players seemed to be losing their footing, and Warner’s kicking suffered even more than usual.
The City fans got well behind the side, despite some extremely annoying stewards trying to get everyone to sit down. 300 fans in a stand built for 4000, it really takes a certain kind of jobsworth to go round hassling people in that situation.
The game stuttered to half time, the passing from both sides was poor and there was little excitement. Burnley’s fans seemed to be asleep as we didn’t hear a peep out of them.
Half time 0 – 0
The second half saw a slight increase in urgency from City, and the game became stretched as the half wore on. Burnley picked out Tony Vidmar as the weak link – the man didn’t tackle, pass to a blue shirt or do anything of merit all night. It was a shocker of a performance. Collins should have been on at half time, he really was that bad. The number of slid balls to strikers and recovery tackles from Gabbidon and Williams et al was telling.
Burnley hit a number of efforts from range but Warner was more than equal to them.
Our best chances were on the break, but just when someone needed to take a chance and play a ball out wide, or pick a man out, we would cut inside or back on ourselves. It was incredibly frustrating. It took until the 85th minute before Mcanuff had a left footed shot from outside the box go just past the post. Before that we were restricted to corners and the occasional free kick out wide. Kavanagh’s shot straight into Coyne’s arms from a 30 yard set piece being the exception.
Both sides looked tired as the game entered it’s closing stages. The perennially knackered Alan Lee was replaced by emergency centre forward Lee Bullock for the last twenty minutes, and a point looked likely as neither side looked likely to score.
Just as people were settling for the draw from a poor game, Vidmar gave the ball away to Blake around 35 yards out and was finally punished for his poor play when he played Chaplow in to finish well into the bottom corner past Warner. 88 minutes gone and the game was lost. The Burnley fans woke up and started singing for the first time all night. Kavanagh did well to force a save from Coyne from the angle as we showed some urgency to get the equaliser, but it was never really on.
I know he’s gone, and not coming back, but Earnshaw would have made the difference last night, our strikers are too one dimensional and too easy to defend against. We desperately need a striker. Teams who sell their best players and don’t replace them get relegated. Simple as that. This needs to be addressed now, otherwise it’ll be Campbell up front against Leeds and for all the support people have tried to give him it’s not going to be good enough.
Full time Burnley 1 – 0 Cardiff City
My mood was not improved by the massive number of Man Utd coaches going back to Devon and Dorset down the M6. Then roadworks and traffic jams that were worse than what we encountered on the way up. Getting home at 2am, and what an instantly forgettable experience, a time-server to pitch up against the good days like Wolves.
Lawrence’s record this season reads P11 W2 D2 L7 Pts 8. In anyone’s book that is relegation form. Lennie asked us to judge him after 12 games. Even a win against Leeds will see us in relegation form over the first quarter of the season. I think nothing less than 3 points on Saturday will save his job as things start to get very very worrying at Ninian Park.
Report from FootyMad
Richard Chaplow struck two minutes from time to earn Burnley a 1-0 win at home to Cardiff, to bring to an end a three-match drawing sequence.
Burnley had the better of the play throughout the 90 minutes, though chances were few and far between in a scrappy encounter.
Robbie Blake went close to breaking the deadlock early in the first half, but saw his goalbound effort blocked by Cardiff defender Tony Vidmar.
The closest the Bluebirds came to making a breakthrough was Peter Thorne's effort, but the striker's shot was well saved by Danny Coyne.
The game livened up after the break with Cardiff going close through Joel McAnuff and Jean-Louis Valois, while Blake fired a 25-yard effort just wide for the home side.
Chaplow grabbed the winner in the 88th minute when he latched onto a neat throughball by Blake before keeping his head to slot the ball home.
The Clarets were almost denied all three points at the death when Graham Kavanagh fired in a shot, but Coyne was on hand to tip the ball around the post.
External reports
Western Mail
Echo