Match Details

Reports

A cracker of a match tonight. Just for the faintest moment I thought that Vince Bartram was going to be decapitated as Wrighty blasted the ball through him. However, the real Man of the Match award has to go to a sensational goalkeeping display from Paul Crichton.

On a crisp clear night Burnley lined up as:

Crichton

Thomas Davis Cox

Little Cook Mellon Johnrose Branch

Cooke Payton

Subs: Wright (Cook 70), Mullin (Mellon 81), Jepson (Payton 78), Armstrong, West.

FIRST HALF

In the 90 seconds before the first goal both sides looked lively before Gillingham seized upon a failed Steve Davis charge and raced down the other end to force a debatable corner on their left wing. Burnley decided not to put a man on both posts, the corner was taken short for a flick-on, it hit a Burnley defender, pinging past Crichton who was wedged behind a cunningly placed Gillingham attacker, and the ball was poked in off the head of Guy BUTTERS at the far post from about 4 inches.

This was not a great start and for the next 20 minutes Gillingham had a clear edge. Hessentaler in midfield was orchestrating most of the play. They are a big physical side, but play the ball around extremely well, mixing the play between low fast balls up to Asaba and Onoura to set up the midfield, and passing it through the midfield to feed their wingers. Peter Taylor looks to have done a really good job in extending their style of play from last season. In defence they were quick at closing down and Burnley struggled to string passes together. Cooke and Payton both looked pretty lively.

Tackles flew in as the Clarets tried to harry the Gillingham midfield. Meanwhile referee Graham Barber, freshly demoted from the Premiership (and with good reason) obviously felt he was the star attraction and decided to warm up with some yellow cards. Cook, Cox and Mellon all went in the book for late, but non-malevolent challenges.

Gillingham and their fans were beginning to take the Mickey and for some reason had taken a dislike to Andy Payton. The defence was continually sucking in Cooke, Payton and Mellon at the back, then playing the ball past them into midfield. On one of these routines Payton fell over twice in challenges, the crowd roared with laughter, only for PAYTON to then promptly dispossess a defender, hare towards goal and welly the ball past Bartram. Game on!

At this point, I feel it fair to mention that Payton and Cooke both worked their socks off tonight. In fact I cannot fault the commitment of any player; although they were second best for large periods of the game no heads dropped and it's fitting tribute to the team spirit that they fought back for a draw. Criticise Stan Ternent if you will (and we will!) but he's done wonders for the collective attitude of his players over the past 18 months.

It was around this point that super Clarets then struck a purple patch. Little cracked one against the post with the 'keeper beaten, and the rebound just evaded Payton - I cannot exactly recall whether this was before or after the goal, sorry - and Gillingham didn't really have a decent shot on goal.

HALF TIME

... and the chance to sample the Priestfield's bizarre catering system, where you serve your own sugar and milk from a bottle on a little table next to the booth, and the regulation Away Portakabin Toilets. In actual fact the ground is pretty good now, a new long side stand is being built too.

SECOND HALF

Peter Taylor makes what appears to be a tactical switch and swaps McGlinchy for Saunders. This means nothing to me, except for the fact that Gillingham start to take control of the midfield again.

On the break, Cookie manages to dink a ball over the goalie but it is cleared well before the line, and also delivers a pearler of a cross which Payton can't quite convert (even after using his hand), but apart from that it's all Gillingham. Branch starts to have a torrid time on the left as he is pinned ever further back and gets booked, but wave after wave of crosses is cleared by Davis, Cox and Thomas. It looks like we could soak this up all night, but...

A volley from a midfielder smacks against ASABA just past the halfway mark, who runs and runs and... runs a bit further as players back off him, then feints before walloping the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net. It was an excellent goal, and considering he hadn't played all season, the Cambridge Clarets' forlorn hopes that he might be "a bit rusty" weren't quite fulfilled.

After that it gets a bit hectic. It's open season on Crichton as Stan remembers he has substitutes and brings on Wright for Cook, a change that appeared to do no good whatsoever as neither player was making much impact. The only change seems to be that our defensive organisation goes right out of the window for 25 minutes.

I'd never been a great fan of Crichton, especially when watching his catching practices before and during games, where his technique looks worrying - is he meant to look off-balance like that? Tonight though he was terrific; he made 5 or more world class saves, real stunners, and caught and punched any cross that came near him. (If you can hear a crunching noise it's the sound of humble pie. He's a lot better than I ever gave him credit for and yet another example of why I'll never be a football manager).

As the Burnley goal undergoes more bombardment, Stan becomes tired of his midfield being overrun and drags Jepson out of his tracksuit, who sits on Hessentaler for the rest of the evening. With ten minutes left, slowly the beating we are getting slows, and we manage to play the ball out of defence for a few seconds. Then there a hopeful cross - a defender's cross? - from the right, the giant Gillingham centre back throws himself at the bouncing ball, completely misses it, and suddenly there's a Mr Wright, at right angles from goal on the penalty spot, with the approaching ball and a couple of yards of space in front of him.

WRIGHT takes two touches and the net billows, and then everything on the terraces goes a bit bonkers, while there is a mini pitch invasion from the Burnley dugout. After that there was only one team in it, but no clear-cut chances for either side. To be honest, another goal would have been nice but hardly fair.

FULL TIME

and Wright runs to the crowd with Johnrose on his back to show off another of his famous T-shirts. Unfortunately the writing is tiny and the collective failing eyesites of myself, Igor, Jeremy Wilson and Sid our chauffeur are unable to decipher any of it (any offers anyone?) The rest of the team don't quite seem to share Wright's celebrations but look pretty happy nonetheless.

This was two points rescued as well as one point gained, and as stated earlier Gillingham look a good side. However, a Gillingham victory would have given them a massive psychological boost and leapfrogged them into fifth with games in hand. As it is, it'll probably feel like a defeat for them tonight.

So, all to play for. No individual points scores because (a) I want to get some sleep and (b) it was a good team performance. 7 for the crowd who warmed up after a while and about 3 for the referee, who was even jeered by the home fans though they had no players booked.

UTC

Steve

--- Steven Tattersall, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Cambridge

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