Burnley 0-2 Derby County
The Singing Section
By Tom Pickup
October 24 2004
On a rainy night, in front of the second biggest home attendance of all season and on Sky Sports TV, Burnley were set to face Derby County. This is when Burnley decide to wait to face their biggest defeat of the season.
The game was never going to be a great one. The pitch cover had been lifted wrongly half an hour prior to kick-off and left 5 yards of flooded pitch down the Bob Lord side of the pitch. Burnley had just had a 9 game un-beaten run and were looking for all 3 points ahead of this game. Both teams came close early on in the game, with Derby blasting over the bar and an Ian Moore header well saved by keeper Lee Grant. There was a change of referee half way through the first half, but as the teams went into the tunnel the scores were still 0-0.
Moore came close with a rasping shot, again well saved by the opposition keeper who was on fine form. Derby were attacking in numbers and came close to the lead, but Coyne pulled off a marvellous save to deny Marcus Tudgay. Then Derby crossed a free kick over to their smallest man, who walked in behind Mo Camara to simply head past Danny Coyne.
Then, with McGreal on the ball on the edge of his own 18-yard box passed the ball to Derby's striker who ran to Coyne and then squared the ball to Marco Reich for the second. By this time it didn't look likely that Burnley were going to get back in the game, and Derby then sat deep and watched as Burnley passed the ball between the defence and the attack. Robbie Blake came close before Derby missed a chance to make it three. When the 4th official signalled four minutes of added time, some Burnley fans upped and left. The signing section which was on trial at the club was very quiet, but had little to sing about.
The midfield were over run in the game, which gave Derby opportunities to take the game, despite good performances from Micah Hyde and Graham Branch.
The teams lined-up roughly as follows:
Burnley:
Coyne
Duff Sinclair McGreal Camara
Valois Chaplow Hyde Branch
Blake Moore
Subs: Grant (66) for Valois
Duffy (77) for Chaplow
Subs not used: Jensen, Roche, Sanokho.
Bookings: John McGreal (foul) 58 minutes.
Sendings off: None
Derby:
Grant
Jackson Mills Huddlestone Vincent
Bolder Idiakez Taylor Reich
Tudgay Rasiak
Subs: Bisgaard (80) for Reich
Subs not used: Richardson, Doyle, Peschisolido, Junior.
Bookings: None
Sendings off: None
Referee: Alan Kaye (Wakefield) – replaced by Lee Mason (Lancs) on 22 minutes
Attendance: 13,703.