Burnley 3 Sheff Utd 2

By Longsider
December 8 2003

Burnley beat Sheffield United thanks to a combination of good football and poor goalkeeping from the visitors. The win moves the side further away from the relegation zone and suddenly there is even talks of play offs.

Burnley continued the recent good form with a victory over 3rd placed Sheffield United. It was a case of two halves with Burnley playing some really good football in the first half and then having to defend deep to secure the points in the second

It was all Burnley in the first 15 minutes with Little, Chadwick and Blake pulling the strings. Chaplow hit the bar early on from an acute angle after some good work by Little. Camara had a shot saved by debutant Baxter in goal.

We played some good stuff and roared on by the crowd took the lead through Robbie Blake. Blake hit a long range shot which the goalie appeared to gather comfortably before pushing it into his own net. Without doubt it was the worst mistake of the season so far but gave us our deserved lead. Burnley really should have made it two when Blake found Chadwick on the right who elected to pass, instead of shooting, to Chaplow who then blazed it over the bar.

A few minutes later and the Blades were level after their first real attack of the game. Ndlovu, who caused problems all afternoon, played the ball across from the left for Montgomery who hit his low drive through the legs of Mo Camara, wrong footing Jensen, and into the net.

A few minutes later they had taken the lead after we failed to deal with a routine corner. Tonge at the second time of asking simply dinked the ball into the box for Whitlow to flick a header into the net. It was a poor goal to concede and the Clarets didn't deserve it.

The lead didn't last long as Baxter decided to give us another goal. Blake's free kick was met by the head of Ian Moore and he headed straight at Baxter who again pushed the ball into his own net. Shortly afterwards Moore had another header cleared off the line with Baxter nowhere in sight.

On the stroke of half time a crucial decision was given in Burnley's favour. Mark McGregor was bundled over in the box but the ref waved his arms indicating no penalty. The Assistant Referee however saw things differently and flagged for a penalty. The visiting manager, team and fans went mad. It was a brave decision by the Assistant but replays suggest that he made the correct one.

It seemed an age before the penalty was taken and even though he'd missed his last 3 spot kicks Robbie Blake stepped up and smashed the ball into the bottom right hand corner.

Baxter was taken off at half time and was replaced by the more experienced Alan Fettis. The Blades threw everything at the Clarets at the start of the half and were playing some very good football. Tonge had a shot well saved by Jensen before the Beast tipped Montgomery's shot onto the bar.

The visitors were beginning to get frustrated when Michael Brown made a two footed challenge on Robbie Blake. Barry Neale had no option and produced the red card for Brown. Thankfully Blake was able to carry on as Brown could have easily broken his leg. It recent seasons Burnley have struggled when the numbers have been in our favour and this game was no exception. The Blades made a couple of attacking substitutions and they became very direct. There were a number of scary moments when balls into our box weren't dealt with efficiently but we did manage to hang on.

Ternent ruled out the play offs after the result. He know's we've got an eleven good enough but the depth of our squad is the reason why we won't get there but the fixture list now looks a little kinder and if we can continue to build on the results on recent weeks, the confidence will grow and we all know how well teams with confidence do in this Division.

Burnley:

Jensen, Roche, Camara, McGregor, Gnohere, Little, Grant, Chaplow, Chadwick(Weller 45, West 86), Blake, Moore.

Subs: O'Neill, Pilkington

Sheff Utd:

Baxter(Fettis 45), Jagielka, Morgan(Rankine 71), Wright, McCall, Montgomery, Whitlow, Allison(Peshisolido 71), Brown, Ndlovu, Tonge.

Subs: Page, Boussatta

Ref:- Neale Barry(Scunthorpe)