Na Bother at Bury Gigg!

The Clarets convincingly beat Bury 3-0 at Gigg Lane last night in their second pre-season friendly of the summer maintaining their 100% record after winning 4-2 at Altrincham on Saturday. This once again was virtually a game of two halves in terms of the team selection with virtually all the squad getting a run out at some point during the game. Although we have still not bought any new players this summer, Clarets fans at least got the chance to see Charlie Austin making his return for the first time since dislocating his shoulder back in February and indeed he also scored the first goal last night with just seven minutes on the clock.after his fierce shot took a slight deflection to beat Shakers keeper Cameron Belford from 18 yards. Martin Paterson (minor knock), Tyrone Mears (minor knock) and Brian Jensen were absent from the team selection last night and in the first half-we lined up as follows:

Grant, Long, Edgar, Bikey, Fox, Bartley, McCann, MacDonald, Elliott, Rodriguez, Austin

The Clarets were also sporting their new away kit last night and they looked fetching in all yellow with a claret trim. Clarets fans still wondering who might be captain next season may have got a club with Chris McCann leading out the team. Michael Duff took over the armband in the second half.

Burnley took command against the newly promoted League 1 side after Austin`s opening goal and it was no surprise when they doubled their lead in the 37th minute. Alex MacDonald thumped home an angled shot to score his second goal in two games. 2-0 then at half-time

There were a number of changes for the start of the second half and by the end of the game Clarets fans had seen a number of the development squad players and young guns in action and also had a glimpse of our new trialist goalkeeper, Jon Stewart strutting his stuff after he replaced Grant for the last 12 minutes of the game. Three players though got an extended run out, MacDonald, Edgar and Elliott which may be a clue to Howe`s thinking for his first team selection of the new season.

In summary here are the changes we made:

Lee Grant (Jon Stewart 78); Kevin Long (Leon Cort 46), Andre Bikey (Michael Duff 46), David Edgar (Alex-Ray Harvey 71), Danny Fox (Brian Easton 46); Wade Elliott (Mehdi Lazaar 61, Dominic Knowles 78), Marvin Bartley (Dean Marney 46), Chris McCann (Chris Eagles 46); Alex MacDonald (Wes Fletcher 61), Charlie Austin (Chris Iwelumo 46), Jay Rodriguez (Ross Wallace 46)

The Clarets dominance continued in the second half and seven minutes from the restart the Clarets had the chance to make it 3-0 from the penalty spot after Marney had been felled in the box by Efte Sodje. Eagles took the penalty but Belford saved it no doubt causing some Clarets fans to question whether we should have let Grezza go!!

Burnley did finally make it 3-0 though with seven minutes to go from a Ross Wallace cross. There was Iwelumo to head home. That`s Big Chris`s second goal in two games and one just wonders if he is going to be the surprise package upfront this season after a disappointing 2010-11.

So 3-0 Clarets final score with Burnley now due to embark on their South West England tour next week with friendlies games against League 2 side, .Bristol Rovers and Torquay.

More Stats

Bury: Cameron Belford (Richie Branagan 77); Phil Picken (Zach Rothwell 77), Ben Futcher (Mark Hughes 46), Efe Sodje (Andrai Jones 72), Joe Skarz (Liam Bothwell 84); Andy Haworth, Damien Mozika (Max Harrop 54), Steven Schumacher (Dalton McCloughlin 84), David Worrall (Luke McCarthy 77); Lenell John-Lewis (Danny Hudson 72), Ryan Lowe (Jordan Melia 84).

Referee: Eddie Ilderton (Tyne&Wear).

Attendance: 2,174.