Burnley	0 - 1	Newcastle United
Half time:	0 - 1	Manager: Bobby Robson, strip: home
Score Sheet:
		Cort (25)
	Teams
Crichton Thomas Davis Cox Briscoe Little Mellon Ball Johnrose Cook Gray		Shay Given  Warren Barton  Andy Griffin  AaronHughes Alain Goma  Steve Howey Robert Lee  Gary Speed  Carl Cort Kevin Gallacher  Daniel Cordone
Substitutes:
Mullin for Mellon (46) Cooke for Johnrose (46) Weller for Little (70) Branch for Gray (70)		Nicos Dabizas for Howey (46)  Diego Gavilan for Gallacher (64) Stephen Glass for Griffin (64)  Stuart Green for Cordone (81)
Subs not used:
Jepson Lee West Mawson (gk)		Harper McClen
Bookings:
n/a		n/a
Sendings off:
n/a		n/a
Referee: C.Foy (St.Helens)
Attendance: 11,441 (around 1000 away supporters)

1 min. The match got underway with reciprocal booing from both sets of fans, the home fans abusing former Blackburn striker Kevin Gallacher and the toon lot big-nosed ex-mackem Kevin Ball.
3 mins. Nearly a sensational introduction to England for Cordone, as he unleashed a shot that Crichton admirably dealt with - in a typical piece of play by the Argentinean, he had allowed Gallacher to make a run before cutting inside and trying his luck with the strike.
23 mins. The home side threatened to open the scoring as a corner was dropped in the United box and a Steve Davis header had to be blocked by Andy Griffin on the goalline.    
25 mins. Carl Cort got his third goal in two games, heading in at the near post following a cross from Andy Griffin, playing in an advanced right-sided role. Regrettably the goal was scored at the East Stand end of Turf Moor, at the opposite end to the Cricket Field Stand where the away fans were housed. 1-0.
34 mins. Gallacher missed a great opportunity to silence his tormentors in the home enclosures when he shot weakly at the advancing goalkeeper. Carl Cort had been the provider, pouncing on a misplaced pass and striding towards the Burnley box before finding Gallacher with a neat backheel.
37 mins. Another Cordone corner was played to the near post rather than the previous muscular efforts. Goma managed to connect with a header, but was wide of the target.
   
Halftime: Burnley 0 Newcastle 1

62 mins. The post-interval torpor was finally broken by Cort and Cordone getting behind Burnley courtesy of a Barton punt, only for the ball to strike veteran Mitchell Thomas on what looked like a hand from behind the goal. However, none of the match officials agreed...
65 mins. A moment of magic from Cordone, as he brilliantly improvised a flick to take two defenders out of the game - reminiscent of Tino.
66 mins. Barton again drove a hanging cross from the right flank beyond the far post, to where substitute Glass was sliding in. Unfortunately he couldn't place his 15 yard effort the right side of the goalpost.
67 mins. Another linkup between the former Wimbledon pairing of Barton and Cort saw the latter get a shot on target that lacked the power to trouble the home goalkeeper.
70 mins. It was noticeable that by this stage United had adopted a somewhat fluid formation, partly due to the substitutions and also an eagerness to obey Robson on the touchline, who seemed to be waving everyone forward barring Given.
81 mins. Lee left doubled over in the midfield by a combination of ball and defender, but no he suffered no obvious facial injury and was ok to continue.
83 mins. The under-employed Shay Given earned his money with a save to deny Paul Weller, who had managed to elude Hughes and shoot from the right side of the United area. 

Full time: Burnley 0 Newcastle 1 

Ah, the joys of the Nationwide league: 18th Century toilets, what looked like gas lights, a mascot with St.Vitus dance and a PA announcer seemingly reading the team lineups out in Cantonese. A sobering thought to consider that the Gullit era ended with us charging headlong towards the First Division, which would have meant a consequent league fixture commitment at Turf Moor. 

On a simply dreadful night, both sides struggled to make a meaningless game into an entertaining spectacle, and floodlights were required from the off due to the murkiness enveloping this part of Lancashire. Sporadic rain showers gave way to a deluge shortly after kickoff, which along with the presence of ex-mackem Kevin Ball for Burnley brought back memories of the Gallaowgate derby debacle that finished Rudi off. 

No sign of Alan Shearer, obviously nursing his troublesome tendons/tonsils.  Dyer, Ferguson Solano and Domi were other expected absentees, and the captains armband was picked up by Warren Barton, when Lee or Speed might have had reasonable claims.

As for Burnley, they had one or two players missing (including the prolific Andy Payton) but showed little enterprise or ingenuity. More chance of leaving Division One through the rear exit than the playoffs on this display. Their players received Second Division Championship medals before the match, but struggled to produce anything worthy of note thereafter. Local sources reckon that Stan Ternent teams are renowned for being slow starters - for their sakes let's hope so, given that they became the first team ever to lose to the Isle of Man XI in the annual tournament last week. However they did subsequently bounce back and beat Darlo, for whom our old boy Stuart Elliott appeared.

PS - Please note painfully trite and obvious references to the Burnley pair of Steve Davis and Paul Weller have been studiously avoided. No doubt the official page would have regaled you with suitably rotten puns, had they actually bothered to write a proper report of this match. Something like "a miscue from Davis" or "Weller having heavy-soled boots" etc. 

Biffa

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