April 17 2006

Iain Dowie

This match had an air of "end of season" written all over it as we met a Burnley side that had gone unbeaten in five games. The outcome was rather unsurprisingly a 0-0 draw, writes Simon Pophale.

The only surprise was in the starting line up, with AJ being rested and Jon Macken starting in his place. Clinton Morrison returned with Freedman dropping to the bench. Micheal Hughes also dropped to the bench, with this being the 2nd game in 3 days.

In truth, we should have lost this game but with Burnley managing to miss both their best chances, we were let off the hook for another week, after the debacle at Crewe the previous week.

First, James O’Connor on 19 minutes ghosted past Gary Borrowdale and crossed into the box, Gabor Kiraly was unable to collect the ball and it dropped favourably for Chris McCann, who with a virtually open goal, managed to screw his shot onto the post and off to safety.

Their other chance was even easier. Andy Gray, on as a sub found himself with the whole goal to aim at on 56 minutes as Mark Hudson hesitated in the box and neither himself or Kiraly claimed the ball. Gray nipped in but could only send the ball crashing against the post.

Meanwhile, Dowie’s gamble of playing Morrison and Macken failed to pay any dividends at all as neither player managed to carve out a decent chance. Our best effort came from Darren Ward, whose header from a corner flew over just after the half hour mark.

At times, our passing play was a joy to behold. We chanted “it’s just like watching Brazil” but in truth, as each pass was cheered, there was no killer final ball. Tom Soares epitomised the performance as he ran past 2 Burnley defenders for about 20 yards, but miskicked at the final moment and the chance went away.

Not even the introduction of Hughes, Johnson and Freedman could lift the play and the longer the game went on, the more likely it was that it was going to end 0-0.

So when the referee blew the final whistle, it came as more a relief that we could start to make our way back home. Burnley fans celebrated another match unbeaten, while we can only look at the cold hard facts.

We have only 1 win in 5 games and if the playoffs is all about the form team having the best chance, then we look sadly short of what is required to succeed. 6th place is now almost a guarantee, but who we will play in the playoffs is almost now out of our hands.

Leeds, Watford and Preston will be looking and not worrying about facing us in the Playoffs and after our TV humiliation against Leicester and the capitulation against Crewe, Iain Dowie has his work cut out now to solve the riddle of inconsistency that has dogged our season. The answers were not on display at Turf Moor.