By Longsider
January 19 2004

Burnley picked up a point against high flying West Brom today but will be disappointed in not picking up all 3 points. The Clarets took the lead through Robbie Blake before Geoff Horsefield levelled for the visitors. The game will be remembered for the fighting spirits of both sides as well as the referee. It started gently enough but it wasn't long before the first reckless challenge was made.

Tony Grant won a ball close to the touchline despite having a two footed challenge made on him by Andy Johnson. The referee amazingly gave a free-kick to the visitors despite the demonstrations of Stan Ternent. It was the first of a number of poor decisions made by Mr. Miller during the course of the game. The tackles were flying in hard from both sides which raised the volume levels at the Turf.

West Brom had the first chance when Geoff Horsefield found himself in acres of space only to hit a weak shot at Jensen. Horsefield had an even better chance shortly afterwards when he pounced on a Lee Roche mistake. Roche had attempted to head the ball back to Jensen but was too far out and Horsefield intercepted the ball, with his chest, but couldn't bring it down quickly enough and gave Jensen the chance to catch the ball as it fell to the ground.

At this stage tensions were beginning to rise on the pitch with David May giving Rob Hulse a kick up the backside. Hulse went to ground yet Burnley played on, much to annoyance of Albion, before the ball finally went out of play and Hulse was given treatment by his physio. He was asked to leave the pitch to receive his treatment before being allowed back on, almost immediately after coming back on he jumped with Mark McGregor for a ball in the air. Hulse then flattened McGregor with an elbow and referee Miller was given no choice but to present the red card.

The rest of the half seemed to drift away without any further chances for either side despite Burnley having the numerical advantage.

Stan made a change at half time with Dean West replacing the ineffective Luke Chadwick in the centre of the park. The half started much brighter for Burnley with most of the football being played in the Albion half.

Although we had a lot of the ball, we struggled to create any real openings with West Brom tightly marking Robbie Blake. Despite being a man down the visitors always looked dangerous and you always felt that a goal wasn't beyond them. Geoff Horsefield had a fantastic run early on in the half when he ran 50 yards with the ball, shrugging off 4 defenders, before hitting his shot against the post with Jensen beaten.

The pressure continued from Burnley though with Blake and Little becoming more and more involved in the game. The opening goal came in the 68th minute through Blake when he brilliantly turned and hit a low shot into the corner of net. The lead lasted for less than 5 minutes when Horsefield was given the freedom of Burnley down the left, he advanced towards the goal before lifting the ball over Jensen into the net.

Both sides had fierce shots in the closing stages of the game with Jensen saving well from a Clement free-kick whilst Blake had a strong drive well kept out by Hoult.

A point was the fair result and most fans would have settled for that before kick-off however Stan may feel its a case of 2 points dropped after taking the lead against 10 men. The win for Derby means that it is becoming tight at the bottom and Burnley must start to pick up points away from home starting with Wigan in a fortnight's time.

Burnley:-
Jensen, Roche, Camara, May, McGregor, Little, Grant, Chadwick(West 45), Branch(Moore(A) 78), Moore(I), Blake

Subs:- Pilkington, O'Neill and Abbey

West Brom:-
Hoult, Haas(Dyer 72), Clement, Moore(Kinsella 87), Gregan, Johnson, Gaardsoe, Robinson, Chambers, Horsefield, Hulse.

Subs:- Murphy, Sakiri and Hughes

Referee:- Nigel Miller(Co.Durham)