Burnley 2-3 Southampton

Burnley 2-3 Southampton

Southampton collected their first Turf Moor win since 1971 this afternoon, but the ten man Clarets can feel hard done by after a  spirited performance which deserved at least a point.

Wayne Thomas’ early red card meant that his teammates had to play 74  minutes a man down and in the end the remaining players became too tired  and conceded two second half goals- goals which would win the game for the visitors.

The main talking point following the game was Thomas and Steve Cotterill  admitted that he may consider stripping the former Stoke defender of his  captaincy following another moment of madness.

He was given his marching  orders by the shockingly poor Darren Drysdale in the 16'th minute - his fourth red card in 27 games as a Claret and his second of the season- for an incident in the Southampton penalty area which saw Jhon Viafara fall to the floor after what appeared to be a flying elbow hit him in the chest.

At this point we were one goal to the good, however, after Steve Jones grabbed his third goal since joining the club in the opening five  minutes. Michael Duff sent a long throw into a crowded penalty area which somehow managed to find its way past two Southampton defenders and into the feet of Steve Jones in acres of space at the far post, who made no mistake in striking the ball home to open the scoring.

It could have been two minutes later and again Duff was the provider, with his long cross reaching Gifton Noel-Williams at the far post but he had to stoop down to connect with the ball and his header flew wide of Kelvin Davis’ goal. We had started the game in superb fashion, picking up from where we left off in our last Turf Moor outing where a magnificent second half performance culminated in Gifton Noel-Williams grabbing his first ever career hat-trick as we came back from two down to secure a 4-2 win over Barnsley.

Our only stumbling block however was the referee, who seemed to want to blow his whistle against us at every opportunity and the crowd were getting agitated, he did give us one free kick, and this was greeted with ironic cheers and a celebratory ‘UMBABA’ from the home supporters. Mr. Drysdale would once again be at the fore of the action soon after with Thomas’ dismissal and within two minutes Southampton were level. Chris Makin crossed from the left and Rasiak, who looked to be McGreal down, headed past Brian Jensen.

It looked as though the visitors would go onto boss the game but it was not to be, the Clarets continued to have the majority of possession and chances and James O’Conner came close to restoring the lead after he took the ball round two defenders but he shot past the wrong side of Davis’ left hand post.

On the half hour, though, Turf Moor was to erupt as the second goal did come. We won a free kick in the centre of the field which Frank Sinclair, on for Wade Elliott following the red card, sent into the area for Andy Gray to head into the back of the net. Gray ran towards the Burnley fans in the Longside before being congratulated by his evidently delighted teammates. The lead was nothing more than we, and Gray, deserved and you got the feeling of it being like a big two fingers to the ref.

Gray was now playing on wide right midfield, with Gifton operating a lone striker role, and with Gray and Jones often coming inside to support him we continued to create good chances for the rest of the first half and we deserved to be in front as we went in to the dressing room 2-1 up and Steve Cotterill now had 15 minutes to regroup and reorganise the team.

It had been a fantastic half, nobody expected us to be in front at half time when Rasiak equalised for Southampton just seconds after Thomas’ red card but incredibly we were, and to add to the satisfaction we were playing well, creating good chances and keeping the visitors at arms length although the second half was always going to be a different affair. We had already played 29 minutes in the soaring heat and with  another 45 to go, the players were going to tire soon and with only two substitutions remaining the majority of the players would have to go on to play right to the end.

We could have made it 3-1 within the first few minutes of the second half, Gifton Noel-Williams did really well to skip round two challenges and facing an onrushing keeper he shot towards the far post but Davis managed to pull off a fine save to prevent the big man getting his fourth of the season.

The Burnley fans were not happy with Rudi Skacel, the Southampton winger, after his amateur dramatics in the first half but soon after Davis’ save Skacel would complete the trend of players being booed by the Burnley fans- only to go on and score against us. Jermaine Johnson did it for Wolves, Grzegorz Rasiak had done it earlier in the game and Skacel will hopefully have taught the booers a lesson when he produced a fantastic finish from outside the area to bring the visitors level with an hour still to play in the heat.

Our players were already looking tired and not long after the goal we made our second change, Chris McCann coming on for Steve Jones, who had worked so hard down the left. Even after the change, we were being pegged back too much and were struggling to create any chances at all although we were still denying the visitors in the final third but the winner did come and again it was the crowd’s boo-boy, Grzegorz Rasiak, who got the goal, a header which Brian Jensen will look at time and again, he could have done so much better and maybe kept us in the game.

For the last ten minutes we pushed forward more, Alan Mahon was brought off the bench to try and give us that killer pass or shot, but he was again very poor. Andy Gray came so close to finding the equaliser right at the end, but his shot was superbly saved by the fantastic Kelvin Davis, and you will struggle to find many better saves than that all season.

That was to be it though, we lost at home for the fourth time this season but we had played so well with ten men and the fans were rightly proud of their efforts, and produced the rare event of a standing ovation as they left the field after a defeat.

The cause was certainly not helped by the referee Drysdale, who had a shocking game, he did get the one major decision right though- the sending off of Thomas who will now receive a club fine and a four match ban, the skipper, at least for the moment, will find it hard to win over the fans after ultimately costing us the game once again.

It seems unfair to pick out an individual after such a great team performance, but in the end my man-of-the-match decision was between Gifton, Harley and Ginge, who all had excellent games and must all receive special praise. I was a big critic of all three last season but recently I have been made to eat a rather large slice of humble pie as they have enjoyed great form at the start of this season.

My overall man-of-the-match, however, goes to Ginge- James O’Connor- he ran around all game causing problems, putting in tackles, coming forward with the ball, passing well and had what was probably his best game in the claret and blue of Burnley.

Burnley: Jensen, Duff, Thomas, McGreal, Harley, Elliott (Sinclair 27), O’Connor, Hyde (Mahon 80), Jones (McCann 68). Subs not used: Foster, Lafferty.

Southampton: Davis, Wright, Baird, Pele, Makin, Belmadi (Dyer 78), Idiakez, Viafara, Skacel, Rasiak, Wright-Phillips (Jones 66). Subs not used: Miller, Bale.

Referee: Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire).

Attendance: 13,051.

kevrobinson