Walsall - Harris, Wright,
Brown, Simpson, Caines, Hay (Bennett) , Birch, Taylor K, Zdrilic (Paschalis),
Fryatt, Matias (Smith) - Taylor, Stanley,
Burnley - Salisbury, Leeson,
Scott, Eves, Townsend, Pilkinton, Rasmussen, Waine, Hindle, Chaplow,
O'neil - Grimes, Carpenter, Putham, Pugh, Ince.
The Saddlers included senior
pro's Danny Hay, Fitz Simpson, Pedro Matias and David Zdrilic for the
Avon Insurance league reserve clash with an inexperienced Burnley side.
The system was 4-4-2, and the opening
15 minutes were relatively quiet until a Taylor corner rebounded out on
to the edge of the penalty where Pedro Matias riffled the ball in to the
roof of the net.
It wasn't long before Fryatt was
latching on to through balls and isolating Burnley defenders as the
Saddlers looked to double their lead. The young forward looked
dangerous, and with Birch and Matias on the flanks it was a very
offensive Saddlers side.
It was Fryatt who doubled the
Saddlers lead 5 minutes later when a highball caught out the Burnley
defence and left Fryatt running through on goal. The keeper
hesitated as he came out of his goal, and Fryatt thumped the ball past
him from the edge of the penalty area with a well timed volley.
Although the Saddlers did not take
their foot of the pedal, their were no more goals the other 25 minutes
of the half, despite a jinking run and shot from Wright which forced
Salisbury to make a reaction save.
Half Time : Walsall 2-0 Burnley
Smith came on for Matias (Birch
swapped flanks) and Bennet replaced Hay at the heart of the
defence.
The second half was no where near
as entertaining as the first, despite an improvement in Birch's
performance which resulted in him forcing to make the keeper make
2 good saves.
The first incident worth reporting
on in the second half was the inoquious penalty awarded to Burnley just
after the hour mark. It seemed as if the penalty had been awarded
against Karl Brown who may have pulled on the Burnley wingers
shirt just inside the penalty area.
Hindle stepped up and tucked the
penalty away, giving Harris no chance.
The game was put beyond Burnley's
reach thanks to a well taken goal by Kris Taylor. It came after a period
of sustained pressure when the Burnley defence were at sixes and sevens,
Taylor was hanging around at the far post when a cross field ball from
the right hand side of pitch found him on the touch line, he took one
touch and blasted in past the helpless Salisbury from an acute angle.
It topped a great performance from
Taylor who had put in a sterling performance alongside Fitz Simpson.
Full Time : Walsall 3-1 Burnley
