By Turftalker
March 20 2004

The final Lancashire derby of the season took place yesterday at Turf Moor. It finished 1-1 with a Robbie Blake goal being cancelled out by a superbly taken Graham Alexander penalty. But it was the referee's performance that most people will be talking about. READ: Burnley deserved a victory yesterday. On chances alone maybe a draw would have been fair, but watching the match and seeing Burnley's better possession and more dignified playing of the game and witnessing Referee Pugh give Fuller's dive the dignity of a penalty - the clarets can feel very hard done by.

The clarets lined up with two changes from the side that drew with West Ham. West replaced the injured Roche, while Chaplow returned to the centre of midfield. Nathan Abbey took his place on the bench, replacing Luke Chadwick who we can only presume was injured. Equally noteable was the fact that David May stayed captain, even with Branch on the pitch.

The first half was more or less all Burnley. Fuller had been kept quiet all half, while Healy and Cresswell were silent all game. Burnley were playing ball around beautifully and the Little, Blake, Moore triangles were really penetrating the PNE defence - a defence that really did not look like play-off quality. However one aspect of the game the team could have improved though was the shots on goal - U21 keeper Lonergan was rarely tested all game.

Eventually the goal came from a Glen Little cross, that was easily tapped in by Robbie Blake for his 16th league goal of the season. Lucketti had made a mistake, but Michael Keane who I can only describe as looking and playing like a pub footballer throughout had tried to dribble out of the box - silly boy!

As the half continued Grant had a rare shot on target, and Ian Moore had another customary mixu up with his own legs with the goal beckoning. PNE had only one chance of note when "Pub footballer" Keane had a shot well saved from Jenson. Equally Dean West made a superbly timed challenge on Fuller in the box - a challenge that Fuller surprisingly did not go down under!

The second half so a change in tactics from PNE, with Lewis replacing Lucketti and the team going to three at the back. Equally PNE took off Ethuu quite soon in to the half, after he dreadfully elbowed Chaplow in the face off the ball - a challenge referee Pugh was not surprisingly unable to see! Burnley however continued to ping the ball around nicely, Camara was having his best outing for a long time and his crosses were often just waiting for a predator to slot them home - sadly none came.

It was about now that the game changing decision occurred. Fuller went in to the box and looked like he was going no where. He fell and literally about 10 seconds later, Pugh decided it was a penalty. TV has shown it was a dive - another example of football cynicism developing. It was quite amazing Pugh had missed Burnley's fairer shouts for a penalty in the first half.

Alexander as usual dispatched the penalty with real quality and this incident sparked a PNE comeback with Fuller being greedy but showing danger whenever he got near our box. But Ricardo Fuller was not content with trying to do all his teams football. He pushed people, elbowed people, threw balls at people and was rightly sent off in the 93rd minute - albeit about 20 minutes too late. Of course the weary whinger failed to see the penalty call, but was eagle eyed enough to see Fuller had not punched Little - what a pity the pigeon that had been circling Turf Moor for most of the second half and that had more pace than Michael Keane did not land on the whinger himself!

Referee Pugh was quite simply woeful throughout the game. He missed key decisions and looked out of his depth. He was not helped by his assistants. If he was working in industry he would surely have been sacked by now. All neutrals have to do is watch his performance today and you will be clear I am not being a biased Burnley fan! Rob Edwards got away with crunching Little throughout, he booked West for trying to stop a fight (this was actually lucky as it stopped Little being sent off for a second yellow) and he booked David May for standing in front of Lonergan. What ranckles more than anything is his lack of consistency, a problem many referee's seem to have.

After the game the Weary Whinger was doing what he does best - moaning. He is down to his last 18 players or so and the man who told Burnley to stop moaning (this is Burnley with massive debt and currently 13 fit professionals) began moaning about his bad luck! Well that 5 million plus raised from Macken, Gregan and Moyes and the 25 man squad must be tough Craig! It is not often you can moan and still be able to bring on an international from the bench. Quite simply Brown is a woeful manager who it seems has failed to build any team spirit at the club. I do not believe PNE will get promoted and although he has bought individually good players, he is really proving less than adequate at Deep Dale.

Overall this was another point for the clarets, and if they perform like this we will be fine. But the worry must be how this last line has been mentioned for the whole of 2004 and still the wins are not coming. Next up is Coventry away and we need to end the barren spell away from Turf Moor. We have played the big boys and done well, it is now time to beat the teams around us.

My player ratings:

Jensen - 7
West - 7
Camara - 7
May - 8
Macca - 8
Little - 7
Grant - 7
Chaplow - 7
Branch - 7
Moore - 6
Blake - 7

Moore (A) - 5

Pugh - -50
Whinger - -23

Turftalker