Burnley 1 Coventry City 2

By Longsider
December 14 2003

Burnley suffered their first defeat in 4 games against Coventry City. The result is a disappointing one and leaves the Clarets looking over their shoulders once again.

Burnley suffered their first defeat at Turf Moor for 3 months yesterday with a defeat against Coventry. The defeat leaves the Clarets just 5 points above the relegation zone going into the Christmas period.

Not for the first time this season the Clarets started brightly and created numerous half chances in the opening spell of the game. Robbie Blake was at the heart of almost everything that was good and with Glen Little also helping out surely we'd have too much for the Sky Blues.

Paul Weller had a great chance for the opening goal but put his shot wide after Little's good approach work and then Ian Moore failed to get on the end of another cross from Little. The goal came against the run of play when the defence failed to deal with a simple ball, played across the box, which fell to Andy Morrell. Morrell toe poked a simple shot along the ground but Jensen never moved and the ball trickled into the corner of the net. Camara was not happy with Jensen and made it clear what he thought of the keepers effort in keeping the ball out.

Coventry, with new found confidence, began to come more and more into the game. The defence seemed to struggle every time Coventry came forward and there were too many panic situations created that should have been dealt with releative ease. The defence that had been well organized, in recent weeks, began to falter.

The second goal came in strange circumstances with the defence failing to deal with a  loose ball on the edge of the box. Tony Grant went to clear the ball but Coventry's Suffo had other ideas and decided to raise his foot over the ball into Grant's knee. It was a disgraceful tackle and for the second time in a week a footballer could have had his leg broken at the hands of a Coventry player. The ref amazingly waved play on and the resultant ball went to the right hand side before the incoming cross was headed into the net by Weller with Jenson completely flat footed. It was Weller's first goal since his injury time winner at Watford 20 months ago but questions at the back need to be answered. Why didn't Jensen come for the ball? Why was Weller not given a shout?.....the referee should also justify why he didn't give the foul and the red card to Suffo.

Almost a minute a later Coventry should have made it 3 when Morrell was sent clear with the defence napping. He scuffed his shot allowing Jensen to make an easy save. The team were booed off at half time and most people were relieved it wasn't 3. Ternent brought on May for McGregor and West for Roche at half time.

The second half started much better with 20 minutes of constant Burnley pressure. Blake, who was magnificent, was running the show and got the side back on level terms when he created himself some space by the corner of the box, by beating a couple of men, before slotting home into Ward's net. In truth Gavin Ward should have done better but at least we were back in the game. It was game on and roared on by the crowd the Clarets searched for the equalizer, half chances were created with Grant's goal bound shot deflected by a defender out for a  corner but the ref got it wrong again and gave a goal kick. Weller, Blake and Little all had shots that went wide or over the bar.

Ternent then gave new signing, James McEvely, his debut when he came on for Chadwick. I think most people thought he'd slot into the left back role with Camara pushing further  up the field but Stan had other idea's and played the centre half on the left wing. McEvely looked like a fish out of water and the atmosphere of  the crowd died. Although we didn't create anything in the last quarter of an hour we did almost have an early christmas present when one of the Coventry defenders rolled the ball to Camara who shot wide instead of  the empty net.

Arthur Gnohere was sent off, for the second time this season, in the last minute for a second bookable offence. The team were booed off when the final whistle came but i think some credit should go to the Coventry defence who played well and were well marshalled by the impressive Davenport. Mike Fletcher had a shocker all afternoon with wrong decision after wrong decision and one can hope that we won't see him referee a Burnley game for some time.