Four more goals, a rainbow and three points
Burnley followed up last week’s 4-4 draw against Ipswich in the U18 Professional Development League by scoring four times again, this time recording a 4-2 victory against Colchester United in a game that at one point looked as though it could be heading the same way as last week’s draw.
It was almost deja vu for the young Clarets as they saw a 3-0 lead almost extinguished, but this time we held out, got control of the game back in our own hands and finally finished it all off with a Kian Yari goal from all of fifty yards.
With a change in the weather forecast, it was a dry morning at the training ground, for the most part at least, and as the sun burst through it was the young Clarets who grasped the initiative. We soon found out that we might have a good goalkeeper to beat and he’d already made two good saves when we finally beat him in the ninth minute.
His second save had come at the expense of a corner on our right which was taken by Dwight McNeil. It was met by Tristan Jumeau (pictured) at the far post and he headed home from close range.
We were dominating and just five minutes later we doubled the lead, this time McNeil finishing with a fine effort into the top corner after he’d been set up by Jordan Cropper and the striker got his name on the scoresheet in the 20th minute when he finished off a move when Leighton Egan played him in.
At this point it looked as though the abacus might have to come out to keep score but for the remainder of the half there were very few chances although more than once the visiting goalkeeper had to be alert again to prevent us getting into scoring positions.
Still, the 3-0 lead at half time looked more than secure but the second half proved to be anything but that as we presented our opponents with two goals and looked for a time as though we might lose the lead altogether.
We’d made a couple of substitutions before the goals and then made a third soon after and then had to play a few minutes with Oliver Younger off the pitch as the young central defender got his head bandaged after a cut before returning with a change of shirt and shorts.
The game lost its way completely for a time with the referee taking centre stage as he waved yellow cards more regularly than Craig Pawson. There were six in all, three for each team.
Order was finally restored and we certainly looked the more likely again, although there were one or two moments when Colchester got forward but the final, points clinching, goal came five minutes into stoppage time with a lot of credit going to Cropper who chased a ball down.
The Colchester goalkeeper, who could rightly claim to be the man of the match, came racing out but could only succeed in playing a loose ball forward. Yari collected the ball inside the centre circle; the goalkeeper was out of the reckoning and all he had to do was hit his 50-yard shot on target. He did that, and as the ball nestled in the net the points were ours.
Just as Yari prepared to shoot, we, the spectators, got our treat as the rain finally arrived and by the time the final whistle blew less than a minute later we were all but drenched and looking at a huge rainbow over the training ground. Gawthorpe just wouldn’t be the same without a weather report.
So from last week’s ‘Two own goals, a penalty and eventually a point’ to this week’s ‘ Four more goals, a rainbow and three points’. It’s taken our run to three wins and a draw from the last four games and ten points in total from five games, a good recovery following the opening day home defeat against Watford. We’ve two away games coming up now, at QPR next week followed by Sheffield Wednesday a week later. The next home game comes on the last day of this month when we face Barnsley at Gawthorpe.
Today’s team was: Adam Bruce, Dan Moss, Oliver Younger, James Clarke, Kwasinkosi Mpofu, Tristan Jumeau (Dylon Meredith 62), Kian Yari, Ethan Kershaw, Dwight McNeil (Terry Mupariwa 60), Leighton Egan (Leighton Egan 68), Jordan Cropper. Subs not used: Marcel Wusiewicz, Bobby Thomas.
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