Preston 5 Burnley 3

By Longsider
December 22 2003

Burnley suffered another away defeat despite putting up one of our best performances of the season. Whilst our attacking play was as good as anything we've seen, it is our defence that will concern most fans over Christmas, a goalkeeper surely top of Stan's list to santa.

Burnley suffered a defeat at the hands of local rivals Preston North End although most of the fans that were there will be left wondering just how we didn't get at a least a point from the match.

Stan Ternent made a few changes following the defeat against Coventry with Mark McGregor, Lee Roche and Luke Chadwick all left on the sidelines meaning David May, Dean West and Richard Chaplow all came into the side. The changes meant that Paul Weller played on the right with Little on the left in the midfield.

North End started the brighter of the two sides and had a couple of chances through the impressive Ricardo Fuller and Richard Creswell.

Robbie Blake sent a free kick just wide during the opening stages and Richard Chaplow has a couple of shots from outside the box. The tone for the afternoon was set when North End scored from a Burnley attack and it came through Ricardo Fuller. He skipped past David May on the half way line, his blistering pace left the defence for dead and he ran the ball all the way to the Burnley box before casually stroking the ball in the far corner.

The Home side were on top at this stage and following a scramble in the box Creswell had a goal bound shot charged down by Chaplow.

It was then Chaplow who had a big say in the equaliser, after being released by Blake, his long range drive was parried by Gould and the alert Ian Moore was on hand to bury the demons that had haunted him since his awful miss at the same end two years ago. In truth the keeper should have done better but we were level and that's all that mattered.

We began to take charge of the game with both Little and Blake causing the hosts all sorts of problems. A few corners caused problems for the hosts and if we had taken a couple of our half chances we could have gone gone into the break with a lead.

The Clarets started the second half as they finished the first with most of the ball being played in the North End half. Preston took the lead on the hour mark when a simple ball played into the box was poorly dealt with by Jensen and Eddie Lewis scrambled the ball into the box. It was an awful goal to concede and no one in the ground had any idea what Jensen was trying to do however Burnley responded positively as a Robbie Blake free kick was headed into the net by Arthur Gnohere with Gould caught in no mans land.

By now it was all Burnley and we should have taken the lead a minute after we scored when Ian Moore's shot was brilliantly saved by Gould. From the resulting corner David May headed against the bar to keep Burnley top of the woodwork league this season.

Burnley were throwing everyone forward and Blake's runs at the defence caused panic, it was from one these runs that we were to be punished when Blake was dispossed just outside the Preston box. A swift ball to the right winger who had 50 yards of space to run with the ball, he crossed over to Cresswell, who missed it (Jensen was flapping by this stage), but the ball fell to Fuller who got his second of the game.

We were back on level terms just 4 minutes later when Blake went on a jinky run only to be brought down by Marlon Broomes. Despite Fuller and Gould's attempts to put Robbie off the inform forward placed the ball in the keepers left hand corner to level the game for a third time.

A minute later and Burnley really should have taken the lead when Blake beat a couple of defenders on the right, played it to Ian Moore who back heeled the ball to Glen Little who had the freedom of Preston to score. He casually place the ball into Goulds hands instead of the net. It was a sitter.

Gould then threw the ball to the right back and 10 seconds later the home side were back in front. A through ball to Fuller resulted in the Jamican firing in his third and Preston's fourth. It was a sickner and the 3,500 visiting fans all seemed to be holding their hands int heir heads.

To compound the misery they got a fifth shortly afterwards when Healy's simple shot was bundled into the net by Jensen to round off a truly awful display of goalkeeping.

The team got clapped off the pitch but it wasn't long before the rumours were spreading that Stan had quit, then he'd been sacked, but it was all media hysteria and Stan said that he would never quit the club.

Preston:-
Gould, Alexander, Jackson, Lucketti, Broomes, Etuhu(Healy 58), O’Neil, McKenna, Lewis, Cresswell(Abbott 72), Fuller(Davis 90).

Subs not used: Lonergan, Keane.

Burnley:-
Jensen, West(Branch 84), May, Gnohere, Camara(McEveley 85), Weller(Chadwick 76), Chaplow, Grant, Little, Blake, Moore.

Subs not used: Roche, McGregor.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirrall).