It's Grant

By Longsider
January 8 2004

The First Nationwide teams' of 2004 have been announced with Burnley having a player in it. The latest player to win the award is Tony Grant.

The panel of judges were impressed with his display against Mansfield and had this to say about the midfielder:-

"The former Everton midfielder was the dominant performer as Burnley brushed aside the challenge of Mansfield in an incident-packed third round tie at Field Mill. The home team had two players sent off, while Burnley were reduced to 10 men late on, but 29-year-old Grant's quality shone through as Ian Moore grabbed both goals in the Clarets' 2-0 win."

Grant fully deserves the award and maybe some of his critics will sit up and start to take notice of his performances. Fans will remember the appalling crowd reaction at the Stoke game when he was booed for winning the man of the match award.

Also in the team was former Burnley defender Ian Cox who got in the side despite scoring an own goal in the Gills 3-1 victory over Premiership Charlton.

The full team:-

Bertrand Bossu(Gillingham)
Des Walker(Nottingham Forest
Ian Cox(Gillingham)
Chris Morgan(Sheffield United)
Clive Clarke(Stoke City)
Tony Grant(Burnley)
Kevin Muscat(Millwall)
Chris Hope(Gillingham)
Julio Arca(Sunderland)
Carl Asaba(Stoke City)
David Healy(Preston NE)