Match Details

Ball

Weller

Taylor (off 77)

Reports

We had barely time to settle when the tackles started flying in and it was obvious that this was a "derby" and no prisoners were going to be taken. However I had only eaten half of my pie, when a neat interchange of passes between West and Little set the latter away down the right galloping forward across nearly half of the pitch. Unusually, Glen didn't check back and beat his man twice, instead he kept going & whipped in a nasty looking cross which was smashed in by Moore who had got between the defenders. The whole place went nuts, as despite his lack of goals Moore is a popular lad due his work rate and commitment which appears to go down well with the home punters, but the goal itself was as a "goal of the month" contender and worth the admission money on its own.

There was almost a stunned buzzing sensation hanging over the crowd as it took quite a while to assimilate that we had taken the lead in such stylish fashion. Steve Davis then lead the way clobbering two of their players early doors for an early booking and the others, Ball in particular, following the captain's lead. Personally, whilst I wouldn't advocate seriously foul play, I am quite happy to see a Burnley side boot one or two of the opposition as it has been happening to us over the years. All successful teams have an enforcer, Nobby Stiles in 66 and Roy Keane does the same job in the United side. Souness did the same for the Liverpool side. This was a "derby" match and the main consensus about last week's debacle was that the Clarets didn't get stuck in. Clearly the players got the message and made up for it on Friday, it might not have looked too pretty at times, but this is football not the Royal School of Ballet.

The opposition appeared rattled by the attitude of the Clarets and the early goal and it took them about twenty minutes to get into anything resembling a stride. In the event they produced very little direct threat to NTG's goal. The main concern in our party was NTG's failure to come off his line and collect crosses of any sort. The nearest Preston came to scoring was direct from a corner, which NTG held under the bar and a header just over the top, which amusingly the PNE fans sat in the CFE thought had gone in as it hit the top of the net.

Meanwhile the midfield three bossed the middle of the park and when they weren't crunching their opposite numbers played some good passing football. The defence looked sound as a bell, with Davis and and Cox well on top of the dangerous Macken and Healy. The full backs were also keeping things tight and with Moyes tactically outfoxed with Cresswell making up a front three, this left West acres of space down the right to combine with Little and give McKenna a difficult game. Another pleasing aspect of the performance was that they were not content to sit back on a one goal lead but went forward in search of more goals and came close on a couple of occasions.

They finally got the second which came about after a peach of a ball from West down by the corner flag that picked out Taylor, his fierce header was beaten out only for Ball in an unusually far forward position to knock home the re-bound.

At half time it was time to pay homage & take our hats off to Ternent. West was a revelation at right back, and gave the back line some much-needed width. This allowed Weller to be moved in to the middle of the park to give this area some extra vitality and in the event freed midfielders to go and join the attack without worrying about covering the defence. The main beneficiary of this was Ball who IMHO is not a bad player but in previous line-ups has been asked to do far too much work in effectively a two man midfield.

This also meant the front two got some decent service and that Glen wasn't overly encumbered with defensive duties. The net result was an increased offensive capability that didn't compromise defensive tightness. Well played Stan.

At half time Moyes attempted to negate the threat of West down the right by bringing on Anderson to occupy him and took off the ineffective Macken. This partially worked as Burnley were pushed back more in the second period and some of the familiar long ball clearances were deployed to relieve the pressure and they began to sit deeper. However this spell of play ceased when Mullin came on for Moore and his strong running resulted in goal number three as Cook got well forward down the left and produced another great piece of football combining with Mullin down by the corner flag. Cook fired in and the rebound was beaten away as far as Glen who slammed in the loose ball centre field just outside the box for a rasping drive.Taylor had the chance to put the icing on the cake, before we had even sat down again, but put his chance wide when one on one with the goalie. After this it was exhibition time and the game petered out with Preston looking a well beaten side with as long as 10 minutes to go, with passes going astray and so on..

Contrary to Simon Evans, I thought that 3 - 0 flattered Preston, and not Burnley, as NTG didn't have a save of any difficulty to make and the two Preston goalies had plenty to do. I noted Simon's attempt to maintain his "boring" "long ball shite" agenda by focusing on the tough tackling, but for me and many others this was one of the positive aspects. Unlike the boys of '83 the boys of 2001 let the opposition know they are in a game, and they are not going to be bullied out of the points. However plainly it takes more than that to win a game 3 - 0 and at times the Clarets produced some good passing moves, thrilling direct attacking play and stylish football, as well as calm but resolute defending.

The only downside for me was the occasional hesitancy of NTG, and the relatively low turnout of Clarets fans circa 13,000 although it was a foul night and there was an outside possibility of postponement. However this was far outweighed by superb performances from virtually every outfield player and the effectiveness and combination of each of the units, defence midfield and attack. In short a real team performance.

I am loathe to single players out but accolades must go to West coming in for his first game at right back against a top six side, and the home team under pressure following their hiding last week. West's passing in the first half was particularly noticeable, as apart from having a significant hand in setting up the two goals, his ball of the night was a Hoddlesque fifty yarder that set Moore free for a run on goal which he fluffed by losing control. In the midfield Ball showed that he is much more than just an enforcer when given adequate support, not only were his crunching tackles to the fore, his passing & control were good and he got forward to support the attack. Up front I thought Taylor did well leading the line, holding the ball up and winning a fair amount of aerial challenges. A pity he didn't round off his display when he put his chance wide.

Lastly the atmosphere in the ground was brilliant and a win in a "derby" was something to savour. The Preston fans made their full contribution here as they nearly filled the away end and continued to support their side although they were behind for most of the game, although one or two nipped off to get the early bus at 3 - 0.

Perhaps one of the best things about the result and performance was the evidence that even without wholesale re-building we are easily good enough to survive in this division for at least another season and that this year was not a fluke. Myself I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to ditch any of the players we had out there on Friday as they all demonstrated that they can play effectively at this level. Obviously age, wear and tear etc is going to take its toll on the likes of Ball, Cook and Davis but plainly they are not finished yet.

Rather than trepidation, myself, I am already viewing the next season with great excitement as if Stan strengthens yet again this summer, we could be up there seriously challenging for top six spots. Friday nights performance makes the suggestion that Stan is incapable of moving the team forward and is some kind of pre-historic old fart only suitable for the lower leagues, almost laughable when he has lowered the colours of Watford, Fulham and Preston just recently.

On to tomorrow night when I believe that Wimbledon will end our faint play off chances, but the fact that we are even going into this game in this mode is surely the kind of thought that could have only been induced by category "A" narcotics only two seasons ago. If the unlikely should happen and we actually beat Wimbledon, its still everything to play for. Realistically I think they will prove too strong for us as they have a number of Premiership class players, they are very strong up front and are in good form having seen off Birmingham comfortably on Saturday, and have won their last five home games on the bounce. The Clarets away form isn't the best and if they concede first, they struggle on their travels.

Equally Burnley must feel confident after Friday and go into this game with nothing to lose. It will be interesting.

One final point, the number of posts leapt last week when we got thrashed 5 - 0 at Blackburn, however this week after a splendid win all we get is Simon's predictably negative view of a game he probably watched on tele. How about some more positive reaction from those who went, please?

All the best

Up the Clarets

Igor

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