Coventry City 4 Burnley 0

By Longsider
March 16 2004

Burnley were well beaten at Highfield Road on Saturday. The performance left Stan Ternent fuming describing the performance as 'woeful' and he also had this to say 'that was as bad as i can remember and it was embarrassing'

Burnley’s dreadful away form continued on Saturday after we suffered another defeat at the hands of a poor Coventry City side. The performance was awful and Stan Ternents’ post match comments said it all, Burnley is in real trouble.

With both Mo Camara and Graham Branch suspended there was always going to be changes and Stan decided to play Alan Moore at left with Paul Weller in front of him on the left hand side of midfield. The Clarets started reasonably well and had a couple of half chances in the opening 10 minutes but then it all started to go wrong for the side.

Gary McSheffrey broke free on the left, beat Dean West with ease before delivering a cross into the 6-yard box. Jensen and McGregor didn’t communicate and Julian Joachim was allowed to prod the ball home from close range. Burnley should have been back on level terms moments later when a Glen Little cross evaded everybody but Paul Weller on the back post. Weller choose to hit the ball with the outside of his right foot instead of stroking the ball home with his left, as a result the ball hit the side netting.

Coventry were looking the more dangerous side and it is surprising that it took nearly 20 more minutes for them to get their second goal. Jensen didn’t claim a high looping cross and McSheffrey had the simple task of heading in from 6 yards out. It was another bad goal to concede and Jensen really should be asking questions about his inability to come off his line.

Minutes later and it was three to Coventry. A long hopeful ball over the top was won by Joachim who outpaced May before being brought down by Jensen in the box. Jensen was lucky to only get a yellow card but he was unable to move when McSheffrey placed the ball into his bottom right hand corner to effectively end the game.

The 1000 or so Burnley fans that had made the trip were grateful for the halftime whistle after such a poor half of football. Amazingly Stan didn’t make any changes at half time but he probably wishes he did as Burnley turned in what can only be described as a horror show in the 2nd half. For some reason the players simply stopped and didn’t even do the basics that are required in football. Time and time again Coventry players were allowed to run with the ball without the fear of a challenge, space was given to them wherever it was required and our passing was dreadful. The Burnley fans went mad and most were up of their feet screaming at the players to sort themselves out yet the players failed to respond. Coventry’s 4th goal came from another header that wasn’t dealt with but by this stage it was irrelevant, most fans had already left the visiting section.

The simple fact is that if Burnley continue to play with that kind of performance we will be relegated in May. Forest are our next opponents and the side really do need to get the Coventry game out of their system at the City Ground on Wednesday.

Coventry City:-
Shearer, Doyle, Staunton(Konjic 75), McSheffrey, Davenport, Joachim(Adebola 72), Delourmeaux(Barrett 80), Warnock, Gudjonsson, Grainger and Clarke.

Subs:- Ward and Shaw

Burnley:-
Jensen, West(Townsend 80), May(Wood 59), McGregor, A.Moore(Scott 75), Little, Grant, Chaplow, Weller, Blake and I. Moore.

Subs:- Abbey and Chadwick.

Referee was Tony Bates(Staffordshire).