They may be clichéd, but the phrases ‘game of two halves’ and ‘we miss Andy Gray’ certainly came to mind when I began planning my match report for yesterday’s defeat to Barnsley.

Fresh from the Turkey and Christmas pudding, three thousand Clarets travelled to Oakwell, a ground that has not seen a Burnley win since way back in the 1930s, eagerly anticipating three points against a team struggling to stay in the Championship following last season’s League One play-off success.

However, with Andy Gray missing from the side we are struggling for goals and we have yet to win since his injury.  Add John McGreal, Frank Sinclair and Danny Coyne to the injury list and the win does not look as clear cut as the table might suggest.  There was still a feel of confidence in the away end before the game, though, after a fighting display against the form team of the league in Saturday’s draw against Derby County.

Unfortunately, by half time the mood had dropped to one of concern, as Barnsley were on top, looking more ‘up for it’ than Burnley and with an all important 1-0 lead.  The opening 45 minutes were nothing short of a nightmare, with Brian Jensen the only Claret to have earned any sort of credit at all.  In fact without the Beast, back in the team after Coyne picked up another injury, we could easily be three our four down.

That could all have been different though, if Nick Colgan had not managed to knock Chris McCann’s early long range volley round the post.  His opposite number was then in action, Jensen twice coming to the Clarets’ rescue with fine saves, one from a rising Nardiello effort and minutes later from Paul Hayes, who beat his man far too easily to head towards goal.  Already our defence was looking weak and fragile, and Wayne Thomas in particular was having a horror show.

Now I am usually the first to defend Thomas and a lot of the abuse he gets is unjust, but yesterday it seemed like he had drunk a little too much mulled wine over the Christmas dinner.  His ability is there for all to see, he has strength, pace, good aerial ability and knows how to put a tackle in, and so it is really disappointing (and quite annoying) that he does not seem to have the brain to match.  Far too many times, he was caught out of position yesterday, and he almost gifted the Tykes two goals in the first half due to a lack of concentration.

Gifton Noel-Williams was proving to be a nuisance in attack for Burnley, and Barnsley obviously had memories of his Turf Moor hat-trick against them earlier in the year, as he was man marked by at least two defenders at any one time.  This meant that Kyle Lafferty could break free into the box 20 minutes in, skip round a challenge and force Colgan into a smart save to keep the scores level.

Barnsley came closest to breaking the deadlock soon after though, as Sam Togwell clipped the crossbar with Jensen beat.  Steve Foster, deputising at right-back, was then at fault as his failure to play Antony Kay offside meant that he had just Brian Jensen to beat, however the big Dane stood tall and managed to save the shot, but Kay knew that he should really have capitalised on the mistake.

The goal did eventually come for Barnsley on the half hour mark.  Youngster Daniel Nardiello managed to spin Thomas and play the ball into Martin Devaney, who wrong footed Jensen to send Oakwell into raptures.  Now if the name Martin Devaney rings a bell in your mind, you may remember that we were linked with him while he was at Cheltenham.  We will never know if it was just speculation or if we were genuinely interested, but I predicted that if Barnsley got a goal, he would be the one to score it- unfortunately these things always seem to happen.

The goal was certainly deserved, Barnsley were showing more fight than ourselves and always looked like the ones who were going to score.  Despite that, we could easily have got back into it right after the goal, but following a scramble in which the ball appeared to smack against the woodwork, the home defence managed to get the ball clear.

Barnsley had two chances to add to Devaney’s strike at the end of the first half, but in both instances failed to hit the target and the whistle went with the home side one goal to the good.  The Burnley fans, who had been getting behind the team for the whole of the first half, gave roars of encouragement to the players as they walked down the tunnel to our right, but there were concerned faces around the concourse during the 15 minute break.  Something had to change, be it our shape, approach or just our attitude, if we were to get anything out of the game now.

We came out for the second half looking much more hungry and when Kyle Lafferty drilled the ball into the box Gifton Noel-Williams looked odds on to score, and fans around me were already on their feet cheering.  As he strook the ball goalwards I was thinking to myself how he must enjoy playing against Barnsley, but the ball his an arm on the goal-line and went behind.  Surely the referee had to give us the penalty, didn’t he?  As the fans and the team looked amazed as he pointed towards the corner flag, it does make you wonder what it will take for us to get a penalty.

We continued to press but just didn’t have that ‘finishing touch’ that we have when Gray is in the team.  Watching from the stands, Gray must have been itching to get out there and help the team out, as ball after ball was delivered into the penalty area, only to be cleared by the Barnsley defence.

A defensive slip gave Jones a golden opportunity to grab a goal just as all looked lost, but after rounding goalkeeper Colgan his shot was awfully limp.  As we continued to push for the goal Steve Cotterill felt the need to make changes, Jones, Lafferty and Harley went off and were replaced by Hyde, Mahon and Garreth O’Connor even made a rare appearance.

With just minutes to go Cotterill realised that we desperately needed a goal and went all out attack- but wait, he had taken off two strikers in Jones and Lafferty, but need not we have the next best thing still on the field- that’s right, Wayne Thomas.  As the big defender moved upfront, many fans did not know whether to laugh or cry.  It was obvious that he was moved up to give us some more presence in attack, but we already had that with Gifton, and a front pairing of Noel-Williams and Thomas was hardly going to break goal-scoring records.

We did push for an equaliser, Mahon hit a freekick against the wall, Garreth O’Connor had a powerful drive blocked and Mahon against hit a long range shot, but couldn’t hit the target.  It was no surprise really when the final whistle went with Colgan’s clean sheet in tact.  Ever since Jones failed to score after rounding him you knew it just wasn’t our day.

Most of the team were booed off the field, and the volume rose considerably when Cotterill and Thomas reached the Burnley fans.  They were the two most at fault, in the eyes of most fans, but there were very few outfield players to put in performances that were anywhere near acceptable.  Brian Jensen was by far man of the match and a string of impressive stops saved us from embarrassment.

Steve Cotterill admitted after the game that we missed Andy Gray, but he needs to look at the rest of the team and how to get them to bounce back in time for the Hull game.

At least he didn’t blame it on the referee.