Match Details

Referee: R D Furnandiz (Doncaster)

Reports

Both teams looked reasonably comfortable in the opening exchanges. Burnley had a spell of early pressure, Reading adopted a passing strategy with Caskey looking quite dangerous. It was Caskey who went closest to scoring, with a looping reaction hook with the outside of the right foot. From my vantage at the top of the Longside it looked a goal all the way, but it smacked against a stranded Crichton's far post.

I suspect this was the slice of luck that turned the game. Although Burnley's play was mediocre at best for the rest of the half, Reading didn't really have another scoring chance. Payton was through one-on-one and forced a good save from Howie, and the Clarets forced a succession of corners. However, Little's crosses were dire to say the least.

The crowd became restless as Reading didn't even try to hide their timewasting tactics. This was a shame because I thought they were a decent side and didn't really need to resort to it. I think they were lacking a cutting edge at the front though. As it was, the tactics merely geed the crowd up against them.

Play became scrappy with neither side playing well. Reading were having some joy in midfield, and putting pressure on Burnley's left wing, but with little result in terms of scoring chances (there was a penalty appeal I believe, but I can't honestly remember it). With the game looking to drag on to a scoreless half time, Burnley forced a corner. Little had been stung by having Paul Cook replace him as corner-taker, and promptly floated one just beyond the penalty spot, where a simultaneously jumping and stooping DAVIS directed the ball into the corner nearest Little, through a crowd of orange shirt. A Burnley player neatly moved out of the way to let it pass.

Thus cheered, the crowd made some noise and thankfully made light of an organised, if not particularly polished, Burnley performance until the end of half time break. Wayne Dowell and Nathan Peel, a ringing endorsement of the 1980s and 1990s Burnley youth policy, drew the half-time tombola.

The second half continued in a similar vein to the first. Little was definitely pushed further up the field, almost level to Cooke and Payton. This forced back the Reading rightback and broke up much of Reading's midfield outlets: however it gave the Burnley defence a decidedly lopsided feel because Branch was forced right back to cover Caskey. This led to a more open game, and a couple of times in the second half the Burnley defence was pulled hither and thither. On the other hand, Burnley looked better going forward. Cooke looked to be going off after a hefty challenge before half time, but stayed on. Again I thought both he and Payton were excellent; Cooke teed up some terrific crosses again.

About 10 minutes into the second half, Little, who had found his range, located an unmarked PAYTON at the near post from a corner and it was 2-0. Andy barely celebrated his goal; is he getting bored of scoring?

The rest of the game was forgettable, which is why I can't remember much of it. I do remember that Davis made a couple of howlers again and Reading had one or two excellent chances to score from them, and of course Wright and Lee came on.

It was Reading's failure to clear another cross which saw the ball hooked back to Little who found Davis (I think) at the far post. Davis hit the bar with a header and it spooned up for an unmolested WRIGHT to nudge the ball about 4 inches over the line. Had I been there I think I could have scored it: however, I probably wouldn't have been there, and that's the art of goal-scoring for you.

This wasn't an A1 performance, and had Caskey's early shot gone in it may well have been different, but the Clarets are now muscular enough to comfortably win matches like this whereas they would have been struggling to hang on to a 1-0 win in the past couple of seasons. Speaking of muscular, referee Fernandez let any sort of physical strength go unpunished, but was consistent, so I thought he refereed pretty well. No booking either. Man of the Match: I don't think anyone was outstanding but Cox didn't make a mistake and didn't allow Butler or Scott the chance to face goal all afternoon. Little gets an honourable mention for delivering the goods for all 3 goals.

Now, when was the last time we scored 3 headed goals in one match? Anyone?

UTC Steve

Steven Tattersall, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Cambridge

Errors? Comments? Opinions to add to this page? Mail us!