The Clarets slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to struggling Huddersfield on Tuesday night in a shockingly, dire scrappy game. This was quite simply Burnley`s worst performance all season and a worrying one against a side renown for leaking goals away from home (38 in total so far!). Huddersfield came to Turf Moor without an away win since Barnsley back in November. They had not won a point away from home this year so far having lost all their four games whilst at the same time leaking 22 goals. The Terriers left Turf Moor with a double over the Clarets for the season and their first away win at Turf Moor in 41 years! Burnley`s woeful performance and defeat also meant Sean Dyche`s disgraced men had now gone six games without a win with no goal now in over 300 minutes of play!
A goal by Huddersfield`s Vaughan in the 55th minute was enough to seal Burnley`s fate and virtually condemn the side to another season of mid-table mediocrity. Now 13th they are a massive eight points behind sixth-placed club, Brighton and the Seagulls also have a game in hand. It is looking bleak and unless we stem the flow and improve confidence we could be looking at a relegation scrap. Third from bottom club, Wolves are nine points behind the Clarets so let`s hope that`s enough to keep us away from the drop-zone. The way we are playing though, anything could happen until we start winning again. We had an ideal chance too to get above Rovers after their 3-0 defeat at Leicester and even a point would have done that. Bolton`s 1-0 win at home against Peterborough also ensured both North West rivals are now above the Clarets which is all very depressing. Sean Dyche has to sort this mess out and get the team playing with confidence again and more importantly find a way to get his strikers to score! Austin alone up front is clearly not working and it is time to consider bringing in Vokes from the start and playing 4-4-2. We have to try something different that`s for sure, things are getting very tedious now and Burnley fans are getting fed up of not being entertained.
Team Sheet
Dyche made just one change to the starting eleven that faced up to Brighton last Saturday and in fact selected the team that started the second-half against the Seagulls! That meant Junior Stanislas had to be content with a place on the bench allowing Danny Ings to make a start. It was perhaps surprising though that Dyche once again elected to adopt the more defensive 4-1-4-1 formation with Brian Stock in the holding midfield role. In summary then the line-up was follows :
Grant, Trippier, Shackell, Long, Lafferty, Stock, McCann, Marney, Treacy, Ings, Austin
Subs: Jensen, Edgar, Bartley, Richards, Stanislas, Paterson ,Vokes
Full Match Report
The game started in a scrappy fashion and to be honest didn`t get much better throughout the ninety minutes. You could argue that Burnley were the most lively of the two teams in the first-half but making the possession count was once again a uphill struggle and there was virtually just one chance created by the Clarets in 45 minutes of play! It was a low shot on the turn from Keith Treacy that gave Clarets fans the only thing to shout about before half-time and amazingly it was the only time Terriers goalkeeper Alex Smithies was tested; that`s how poor we were. In the opening few minutes, Burnley took the game to the visitors but after losing Marney to injury with just fifteen minutes on the clock, the Clarets seemed to lose direction and impetus. Dane Richards, coming on to make his league debut failed to make any sort of impression and many Clarets fans would have struggled to remember Austin being on the pitch he was that isolated. The first 30 minutes passed with little or no entertainment from either side and to be honest it was a dire, dull game all round. Burnley might have had the lion`s share of possession but there was no end product and Clarets fans were left scratching their head at the end of the first-half wondering where the next goal was going to come from. The referee didn`t help either after seemingly being determined to blow for the least thing in a stop-start game that had little flow or direction. Despite three minutes of added time in the first-half after a bizarre sequence of losing balls out of the ground and on the stands not to mention time-wasting by the Huddersfield keeper that went unchallenged, it remained a 0-0 yawn at half-time!
Sean Dyche stubbornly refused to make any changes for the start of the second half and basically things continued as they left off! Namely poor entertainment, scrappy and a massive yawn! The fear was Huddersfield would now be welcoming their good fortune at Burnley`s inability to score against a team leaking goals away from home and could fancy their chances! So it would prove! Ten minutes into the half, the Terriers got their noses in front after Lee Grant could only parry an initial shot from the edge of the box by Adam Clayton. The ball fell nicely for James Vaughan who simply toe-poked it into the net from close range to make the shock score line Burnley 0 Huddersfield 1; a disaster from which we never recovered. In the 59th minute, the ineffective Richards was himself substituted with Vokes coming on to add some firepower up front. It was all too little too late although the Welsh international did come close after his header hit the crossbar. Smithies had little to do and only came alive when Danny Ings came close to snatching a stoppage time equaliser after being sent clear by Danny Lafferty. There were boos after the final whistle blew which is not surprising after a woeful performance that saw the Clarets became only the second Championship side in 18 games to lose to the Terriers!
Match Stats
Burnley: Grant, Trippier, Shackell, Long, Lafferty, Stock, McCann (Bartley-63 mins), Marney (Richards-15 mins, Vokes-59 mins), Treacy, Ings, Austin
Subs Not Used: Jensen, Edgar, Stanislas, Paterson
Booked: Yellow Cards for Stock (45+1), Austin (61) and Trippier (75)
Huddersfield Town: Smithies, Dixon, Gerrard, P. Clarke, Woods, Gobern (Arfield-39 mins), Danns, Scannell, Clayton, Robinson, Vaughan (Novak-85 mins)
Subs Not Used: Bennett, Hunt, Lynch, Norwood, Lee
Goal: Vaughan 55
Booked: Yellow Cards for Gerrard (3), Clayton (79) and Arfield (90+3)
Possession: 48% Burnley, 52% Huddersfield Town (Source: BBC Sport)
Referee: Mark Halsey (Bolton)
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What on earth is going on? Dyche FFS sort it before we have a battle at the wrong end of the table!! Could we possibly miss Wallace that much?
DYCHE TO GO ! SIMPLE
lets not do the “sack the manager” crap, please. Sd is the right man for this job, the team is getting there and he needs at least a season ’til its all his work. He can be correctly judged then. Ive said all along (when i say “ive said all along”, i could mean 3 days or upto a year) that i’d realistically be satisified with a top ten finish at his first go, and i think he’ll do that. The issue is we all got swept way thinking he could perform miricales as he got us to 7th, by Jan.
I do however agree this run is unacceptable. No win in 8 (i think), then we either lose or draw, not alot to cheer about as a fan
I feel quite content today. I understand the problems, I know that this squad is not good enough, despite some people saying pre season it was! (I disagreed). Average players will have good runs of form i.e. above average and of course below average performances. The spine of our team is far too average and lacks a lot. We will not be relegated but we will need to sort out the spine and bring in players to find a ew spine that is excellent, above average or average as its 3 ratings and not the current set up. After speaking to Barnsey on Tuesday I may even be convinced to renew my season ticket, he had a convincing arguement tbc.
We were always unlikely to make the play offs – that was obvious from day 1. This run of form is not good/acceptable ( obviously), but the run of 12 points from 15 previous to that was much above expectation. As VR mentions above – players will have different levels of ‘form’. To me, sacking Dyche would be a silly move ( based purely on field actions) – we need to get into a position of stability with the manager – After the long spells of SC and ST, we havent had a manager last longer than 2 years!
I think it is also a point worth thinking about, did Dyche realise that it was very unlikely we would make the play-offs and decide to keep the squad without knee jerk January signings like Laws had to make, safe in the knowledge a lot of the players were playing for a new contract e.g. Grant, Jensen, McCann, Marney, Pato and Wallace (who he has signed), to name just a few examples!
Vin and Dale have echoed my views. I am never one to get carried away by a couple of victories or, for that matter, a few defeats. That is precisely what football is all about and Burnley are no different to any other club in that respect. Championship football is such that you win some, lose some and draw a few. Going after the manager because we have conceded a corner is very short-sighted but all too prevalent in the modern era. If we’re not careful we will get through managers like Chelsea where the fans, increasingly less important in financial terms, would rather abuse the manager than support the team. They seem to think they know best though obviously not as much as John Terry – though I hear King Chav has a shock coming his way at the end of the season. Things certainly aren’t great at Turf Moor at present where the woeful atmosphere can only help the away team. We have some good players but no world beaters and we are where we deserve to be in the table in my view. Perhaps it is time to bite the bullet, knock down the CFS, fill in the corners….or have a new stadium all together!
The manager is not the problem, the inability of this club to increase our chances of promotion by supplementing the squad is the problem and next season will be even worse as we become less competitive when the FIFA Fair Play bollox kicks in and the club tries to pay players up to 40% less dosh! That does not attract talent and we will suffer! This squad, can beat anybody on it’s day but there is not the depth of quality or quantity to cover our options when key players get injured, suspended or start having a bad spell (eg Austin). We have a load of youngsters in the squad but year-after-year, other clubs get the benefit of seeing them play on loan. If they are not good enough for us by now, get shut and get them off the wage bill
Based on that assumption JayRod could have been shown the door, sadly players like young Williams Fletcher and Hewitt are at an age where they really need to be playing competitive games, but with no Reserve League they now have to develop via friendlies and behind closed doors games. In years gone players would have gained that “match” experience from the A Team and then Reserves. It will be quite possible to release a player who goes onto become a £2 million signing and potential International….just Google Anthony Pilkington and what it doesn’t say is nobody wanted him age 16 when he had been released, hence why he went to college and the college managed to get him onto Stockports books. Williams, Fletcher and Hewitt could all have similar prospects.
Picking up on RT’s comments about CF Stand… Fletch (who is currently installed at t’other end, running UCFB) tells fascinating tales in his book Magical of his work on Galpharm, Reebok, Ricoh and Wembley, in each case setting out what has worked well, and what not (which was not always what I would have expected). He also summarises what’s in his other book on the secrets of stadium building. I have to conffess that I had not previously grasped what an authority we have still working alongside us on this, and who is a Claret through and through. Reading his book shifted me from ‘somewhat sceptical in the current financial climate’ to ‘enthusiastic’ about building a new stand as soon as we can. Just before the book’s end, Fletch states categorically that he knows how to do that in a way that would pay for itself and start generating profit in 3 years. He doesn’t set out the arithmetic in the book, but he says he’s willing to share it with anyone seriously interested. He also states more than once that UCFB can generate income similar to that we have been receiving from parachutes, though he doesn’t specify an amount. Concerning having young players around who don’t make the grade, I’d suggest that there isn’t an alterative to playing the numbers of many beeing called, but few being chosen. That said, it does look as though SD is taking every opportunity learn what’s strengths and weaknesses he currently has on the books. Back to Fletch’s book, if you’re looking for a bog standard player’s biog, don’t buy it. If you want a book that will make you think (and smile), do!
Alex MacDonald and Wes Fletcher are no JayRod! JayRod is still also only 23 now!! We are paying these players and you have to ask yourself are they going to make it for Burnley along the lines of JayRod!? I would say not!