It is pre-season and I don’t read too much into it
Burnley’s pre-season continued with a 2-1 win against Bolton at the Macron Stadium last night and it was another game where both managers were able to take positives as their respective teams build up to the new season.
Burnley won it with a late goal from Josh Ginnelly with Bolton boss Phil Parkinson admitting: “It was disappointing to concede but we had made about nine changes at the time which had disrupted the back four. We were in a good position to see out the game.
“We’d set ourselves up to be disciplined and hard to break down and we wanted to see whether the lads could take on the responsibility of doing that against a Premiership side. I felt 99 per cent of the time we did that.
“I’m disappointed with the penalty because it wasn’t a challenge we needed to make, but aside from that we restricted a team with a lot of talent to very little and then grew into the game. That’s what you have to do against a side of that calibre, you have to be compact against the ball and I thought it was a very worthwhile exercise for myself and Steve (assistant manager Parkin) to see the individuals who would take on the responsibility to do a job.
“Pre-season is about learning about your players, can they take things under instruction and I thought they did it well.”
Parkinson’s last comments went back to the penalty. He added: “In fairness to Dave (Wheater) he missed Saturday because his young baby was ill and he’s played very little football. To put him up against Andre Gray, a £9 million player and top scorer in the Championship last season when you are not up to speed was always going to be a big ask. He’s an experienced player and at his best he’d know to stay on his feet and usher the player away from goal.”
Sean Dyche involved a lot of the young players last night and made a lot of changes during the second half. “I thought despite the changes, we didn’t alter the way we played and that’s a really pleasing thing, when players can slot in.
“The young lads did really well. Aiden (O’Neill) has been with us all pre-season and done very well, and Daniel (Agyei) is maturing and did well up front with Andre. Then there’s Josh (Ginnelly), who also got a bit of the action and his goal. I said to him that I thought he looked a little edgy at the weekend, but tonight he looked a lot freer.
“A lot of these young players’ journey is to belong in the first team and that’s not easy, but tonight will do them the world of good. I don’t think the young lads are ready yet, so let’s not get carried away. They are very good young players and I like them a lot and I think they are going to flourish here, but we have to time that right. However, pre-season is a great time to make sure they get a feel of the first team and some football with them.”
He added: “There was a really good mixture of football tonight. We were methodical when we needed to be, and we showed good, possession based football, which you need to do in the Premier League. But we were equally always looking to affect the opposition and I don’t think Tom or Paul had much to do at the back, so there were good signs on every level.
“It is pre-season and I don’t read too much into it, but you have to look at it and say that the lads are in good shape at the moment.”
Dyche confirmed that both David Jones and Fredrik Ulvestad were missing due to illness but the news on Ashley Barnes who, along with Lukas Jutkiewicz, missed the game with a hamstring injury, was not good.
“Ashley is unfortunately going to be a bit longer than we hoped,” Dyche conceded. “We are not sure exactly how long yet but he’s tweaked a hamstring muscle. The good news is it’s not in the belly of the hamstring, but we are hoping it will settle down quickly. He got off quickly (in Saturday’s game at Bradford City), which is helpful, and Lukas’s is just common sense and a bit of tightness. His is very minor and he trained on grass on Tuesday and will be training the rest of the week.”
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