Burnley 0 Stoke City 1

By Longsider
January 7 2004

Burnley sufffered their fourth consecutive defeat in the league with Stoke being the latest side to take advantage of some awful defending by the Clarets.

Burnley suffered another home defeat to a poor Stoke side yesterday. The defeat has left the Clarets in real trouble at the wrong end of the Division just 4 points above the drop zone having played a game more than the teams below us.

There were a couple of changes to the side that suffered defeat against Crewe. Both Glen Little and Arthur Gnohere were suspended and their places were taken by Luke Chadwick and David May.

Burnley as so often this season started the brightest and could have gone ahead within the first few minutes. Dean West's cross was badly misjudged by Ed De Goey and Ian Moore headed against the post when it was easier to score.

Burnley had a few more crosses that caused minor panic in the Stoke box but in truth we created very little in the first half. Stoke had obviously come with a game plan of not conceding and hitting us on the break as they rarely ventured out of their half in the first 45 minutes.

The second half was a different story with Stoke coming out and playing a bit more football. The ground was very quiet for spells and you could sense the Burnley fans becoming more and more anxious as the game went on.

Stoke scored in the 53rd minute when the impressive John Eustace played a through ball for Akinbiyi. Akinbiyi was suddenly one on one with Jensen, as Graham Branch was too busy counting how many people were in the crowd, and slipped the ball under the Dane to give the Potters the lead.

Jensen actually kept Burnley in the game shortly afterwards when he saved from Akinbiyi after the Burnley defence was once again caught napping. Just a few minutes later Stoke were down to 10 men with Dermot Gallagher showing a second yellow to Marcus Hall.

As usual Burnley failed to conjure anything up against a team with 10 men and the rest of the half just dwindled away. Luke Chadwick was taken of for McEveley with the fans once again booing Ternents' substitutions as most people could see Chadwick would perform better on the rigth without a left back on the pitch.

The game slowly faded away and Burnley don't start picking up points our 1st Division status could also fade away. The next couple of league games are vital with us travelling to Crystal Palace next and with West Brom and Wigan to come, points could well be in short supply.

Burnley:- Jensen, West, May, Branch, Camara(O’Neill 83), Weller, Chaplow, Grant, Chadwick (McEveley 70), Blake, Moore.

Subs not used: Roche, McGregor, Pilkington.

Stoke:- De Goey(Cutler 51), Halls, Thomas, Taggart (Commons 24, Henry 69), Clarke, Russell, Eustace, Johnson, Hall, Noel-Williams, Akinbiyi.

Subs not used: Greenacre, Asaba.

Referee:- Dermot Gallagher (Oxfordshire).