Burnley Snatch It Late As Rams Stall On Frozen Turf... Moor
Sunday, 28th Nov 2010 13:36 by I.Saw

The Rams came out firing but ice and biting tackles slowly sapped the football out of a contest in which Derby couldn’t quite hang on.

Burnley 2 vs. 1 Derby County

Turf Moor, Burnley

The npower Championship

27th November 2010 - 17:20pm

Referee: M. Haywood

Attendance: 13,790

Teams:

Burnley:

Grant, Carlisle, Cork, Marney (Alexander 80), Iwelumo (Thompson 63), Elliott, Mears, Rodriguez (Guidetti 73), Bikey, Wallace, Easton.

Subs: Duff, Jensen, Edgar, Harvey.

Goals: Mears (82), Cork (90)

Yellow Cards: Thompson

Derby County:

Fielding, Green, Barker, Brayford, Moxey, Savage, Bailey, Cywka, Pearson (Leacock 54), Bueno (Pringle 14), Moore (Porter 81).

Un-used Subs: Bywater, Hendrick, Doyle, Kuqi

Goals: Moore (19)

Yellow Cards: Green

Report From the Stands by I.Saw:

Mickleover.Wake to a blanket of snow. Birds Tomato Sausage and Birds bread - breakfast. It’s good being back in Derbyshire. Only the oatcakes are missing.

Snow then. Open car door gently very gently trying to keep the white stuff out, look to be doing well then it all goes wrong drivers seat covered. Oh well, best do the man thing. Jump in and start the engine. Windscreen wipers clear the view. Jiggle with side windows unsuccessfully snow wins and I’m left wet.

A trip to Birds to replace the bread sorts the roof, well almost. Then it’s on our way.

A516, A50 bonnet still covered. Stoke bypassed, a salt encrusted Passat fails to give up it’s load. It becomes a challenge can I keep some snow on the car till Burnley. Radio Derby said there wasn’t any. I love a challenge and go for it.

M62 ominous, ominous, the ice on the bonnet is beginning to dribble, trickles of water, slides of ice. Jeremy Clarkson, what should I do? Drive faster in the hope of wind chill? Slow down for bends to stop the ice shooting off? Why did I have to buy a black car, wouldn’t a white one be better to stop the heat from the engine?

Stop for lunch at Carluccio’s in the Trafford Centre. Sun’s shining expect the death of the snow.

It’s still there! Well and big lump is. Under the windscreen wiper driver side. Being an idle man helps sometimes.

Back on the M60, M65, then a short "A" road to the M66. Smears on the windscreen, I daren’t use the wipers I don’t want to lose my snow. It’s mine now, I’ve looked after it, nurtured it. Mine!

Burnley - Past the Tesco’s, past the police horses getting in the way, into the Cricket Club. Park. My Snow, my fistful of pure white rests comfortably in the gutter in front of the windscreen. I feel proud Snow to Burnley. Except they have their own, a thin dusting of powdered sugar that rests everywhere. Last time I trust Radio Derby.

Turf Moor then, sit anywhere, wooden seats flat base curved back, at least the wood insulates.

Kris Commons missing from action, Stephen Pearson wide left detailed to cut out Tyrone Mears. Mears has a torrid time from the spectators behind the goal and an easy one on the pitch.

Sub zero temperatures and Alberto Bueno lasts barely quarter of an hour. Ben Pringle his replacement as our Spaniard walks back to the changing room holding an ice pack. Oh the irony.

Our first shot on target, Luke Moore chests the ball down then a wicked deflection beats ex Rams Lee Grant, their keeper. One nil, nineteen minutes gone.

Little were we to know that our next Rams shot on target would take some seventy-three minutes to arrive. Derby sit back, lose possession and Burnley are by far the better team. We let them play. Actually we can't stop them!

Half time and a replacement Hollands pie after the first one fails the "at least luke warm" test.

Second half and it’s all Claret. It’s not whether we will hold the lead it’s how many Burnley will eventually score, chance after chance goes begging as the Rams rearguard hoof and watch the ball sail back into the danger areas.

Dean Leacock looks to add steel at the expense of Pearson; Pringle moves over to mark Mears with the same lack of success that our number eleven employs.

Sub Thompson elbows Shaun Barker in the neck and whilst the referee reaches for a red perhaps the lack of animated protest tempers his decision, when the card comes it’s yellow. A poor decision even from eighty yards away.

What we can see coming, what we dread happens.

Dean Moxey slides in on the edge of the box, a foul and whilst these is being lined up and with Nigel Clough star jumping up and down, Chris Porter replaces Moore before the kick is taken.

It’s Derby’s third substitute, and, I might not be alone in thinking Shefki Kuqi must have run over a black cat. Or perhaps committed some other diabolical crime not to be selected to play in a match that was crying out for a player who could hold the ball up and outmuscle Bikey in the Burnley defence.

It matters not. Porter is on, Tyrone Mears bends the ball over the wall and past Frank Fielding’s’ despairing dive to level the scores.

There can be only one winner. Only one team is playing to win. Burnley through Cork adds a second. A header from a cross that found Paul Green and Leacock ball watching. Two one and deserved.

Belatedly we put Barker upfront and we almost sneak an equaliser. It’s would have been unfair and it’s not to be.

The final whistle and freezing we head back to the car.

To cap the day off me snows gone. . It’s sub zero it can’t have melted. Can it? Maybe some Lancastrian borrowed it for a one sided snowball fight. Ah who knows and who cares "I took snow to Burnley" next season I’ll do coals to Newcastle. Hopefully!

Hitting minus seven on the way back I wonder whether I can face watching it again on Sky. Two and a quarter hours later the decision is taken out of my own hands. The HD box failed to record. Just as well really I suppose.

Oh the life of a football fan on the road.

Managers Reaction:

Nigel Clough was gutted when speaking after the loss:

"It was a real kick in the teeth to lose so late, we actually thought we had weathered the most of their pressure. But we gave a silly free-kick away which led to the first goal, and you always fear after that."

"Burnley pushed us back for long spells, but we certainly didn't plan to sit back as much as we did. We worked very hard and restricted them to very few clear-cut chances and we're close to grinding results out away from home.

"It is disappointing today but we've shown we're not a million miles off, and we need to balance grinding results out with playing our game as well. We can't defend for 80 minutes or so like we did today, it is too long to hold on.”

"We gave the ball away at times and you get in that mindset of last-ditch defending, even in the first half.”

"Without Commons and Bueno out there to perhaps create something, it is difficult although Luke Moore scored a cracking goal for us. Kris has scored in all of our away wins so we did miss him a lot, and he can create something as well.”

"We've had three or four players down with the bug lately, Kris' partner and child had it earlier in the week too. We had John Brayford struggling with it as well on Thursday and Friday, so hopefully we've seen the last of it now."

Speaking about the injury sustained early in the match by Bueno:

"He has a hamstring strain so we will have to assess him in the next 2-3 days," said Clough. From there, we will be able to determine how long he will be out for".

"It is too early to rule him in or out for the Norwich game on Saturday, we will have to wait and see when it settles down. I don't think he's ever played in conditions as cold as it was tonight coming from Spain, which probably didn't help."