By Longsider
March 3 2004

Burnley put on a brave performance last night with only 13 first team players available to Stan Ternent. A draw was the right result although we could have won it in the dying moments of the game. Burnley picked up another valuable point in our fight against relegation last night but could have picked up all 3 if a shot from Robbie Blake deep in injury time had gone in.

Stan, speaking on SKY SPORTS, said that the said was down to 13 players as both Richard Chaplow and Neil Wood were ruled out at 5.45pm. This meant that Paul Scott, Ryan Townsend and Marc Pugh were all given a place on the bench.

Tactically Stan got this match spot on with Glen Little partnering Tony Grant in the middle. Chadwick started on the right and Graham Branch replace Alan Moore on the left. Robbie Blake played deeper than usual which left Ian Moore on his own upfront.

West Ham started the better of the two sides and were playing some nice passing football in the opening stages. Mo Camara made a dreaful attempt at a clearance on 9 minutes only to see David Connolly fluff the chance. At times it was quite desperate stuff from the Clarets with some good last ditch tackles being made by May, McGregor and Roche.

Robbie Blake could have given the Clarets the lead shortly after the miss from Connolly but Bywater made a decent save after Blake had turned Mullins inside out.

Burnley had to sustain another spell of heavy pressure before the assistant referee on the Bob Lord side made his presence felt around the ground. He failed to give an offside decision on Connolly, who looked at least 5 yards offside, infact the player was so shocked he actually wasted the opportunity by delaying his shot which allowed Lee Roche to make a good recovering tackle.

Burnley took the lead on the half hour mark when Blake played a lovely through ball to Graham Branch who fired his shot into the roof of the net. It was the first goal from Branch for 3 years and shocked the Hammers.

The lead lasted barely 5 minutes when the same assistant referee gave a joke decision against Burnley to give West Ham a penalty. Bobby Zamora, who moaned at absolutely everything, tried to go past Mark McGregor in the box as both players tugged each others' shirts. Zamora immediately stopped and jumped in the air like a ballet dancer. The referee, who had a great view, gave nothing but to the amazement of everyone in the Bob Lord stand his assistant flagged for the penalty. I actually saw the referee ask the linesman "are you sure?", which says all you need to know about what he thought of it. Connolly took the penalty and sent Jensen the wrong way to level.

Both Jensen and Bywater were called into action in the remaining 10 minutes of the half but neither side could add to the scoreline. In truth most Burnley fans would have been happy with the score as West Ham were clearly the better side during the first 45 minutes.

The second half was a different story though with the Clarets having a much better spell with the ball. Graham Branch was moved into a more central role, at the start of the half, upfront with Ian Moore and definately had an impact on the game. The side came out with fire in their bellies and showed West Ham absoultely no respect.

Glen Little and Luke Chadwick came more into the game and started to open up the Hammers. Tony Grant almost scored when his long range shot was well saved by Bywater after West Ham had failed to deliver a cross.

Graham Branch had the best chance of the half when he was released by Grant. Branch had only the keeper to beat but was slow to respond to the chance and allowed Christian Dailly a chance to make a last ditch tackle. By this stage it was all Burnley and we should have had a penalty after David May was clearly bundled over in the box after coming up for a corner.

Jensen was called into action a couple of times and made a few saves including a free-kick which had been struck well by Harley. Marlon Harewood was substituted and this for some reason killed the game off for both sides.

Neither side looked like scoring in the last 20 minutes but we could have won it deep into injury time when Little beat a couple of men, his cross was headed out to the edge of the box where it found Blake who saw his effort, with Bywater beaten, go agonisingly wide.

A draw in the end was a fair result against a decent West Ham side. A lot has been made of West Ham and whilst they play nice football they seem to lack punch up front. They also don't seem to have too many players with fight in them which is what is needed to get out of this division.

As for Burnley its another point to safety and surely 11 draws from 11 games will see us safe.

Burnley:
Jensen, Roche(West 55), May, McGregor, Camara, Chadwick(A.Moore 86), Grant, Little, Branch, Blake, I.Moore.

Subs:- Scott, Pugh and Townsend

West Ham:
Bywater, Mullins, Dailly, Rebka, Harley, Carrick, Reo-Coker, Etherington(Nowland 90), Harewood(McNuff 75), Connolly(Deane 81), Zamora.

Subs:- Srnicek and Melville