More fight from Stan’s Burnley in Millwall win
Back home following the defeat at Walsall, Burnley were in midweek action against Millwall and recorded a second win of the season with Andy Cooke scoring twice in a 2-1 win.
It wasn’t a good week for two Burnley men; one of them was in hospital at Blackpool Victoria, the other was facing an attempted murder charge. Car park attendant, 62-yeasr-old Arthur Bradley was the man in court. He’d been charged with the attempted murder of 33-year-old Stuart Thompson after stabbing him in the chest. Mr Thompson was reported to be comfortable in hospital; Bradley received bail provided he lived with his daughter Janet Hopkins in Leyland and didn’t return to Burnley. Ms Hopkins would have known what to do, she was a prison officer. There was no explanation as to the circumstances that led to the stabbing but I can’t believe it was due to Mr Thompson failing to pay his car park charges.
Bradley on bail but it was prison for local builder Patrick Feeney. He was out on bail having been found guilty of over charging an old lady by as much as £7,000 and then went and stole £900 from another old person. Sentencing him to three years and nine months in prison, Judge William Smith said he’d taken advantage of old and vulnerable people which warranted a significant imprisonment. He said: “It is mean in the extreme and grossly offends public conscience,” Feeney was told.
Judge Smith was busy. He also sent another man Mr Frank Holmes to prison for keeping unlicensed guns and dead protected animals at his shop and at home. Holmes claimed all the items had come from house clearances, including a stuffed badger, owl and wild cat. His defence did claim that his shop looked like Steptoe’s Yard; Judge Smith had heard enough and handed out a four month sentence to Holmes.
Burnley Borough Council’s Finance Committee were told that cuts would have to be made to the budget and that led to one councillor coming up with a novel idea. “This is the idea opportunity to put democracy in place,” said Liberal Democrat Councillor Margaret Lishman. She added: “Ask the people what they want. Make the public a part of this problem, it’s their money we are spending.” We’ll let you know if this idea received any support but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
It really was a week of bad news in town with drug raids, sex attacks and a few house break ins so how refreshing it was to find a different kind of story which saw two groups of residents setting up petitions which left them on opposite sides. The subject matter was some twenty chestnut trees in Windermere Avenue. One group were demanding they be pulled down; the other group were making similar demands for them to stay exactly where they were.
Here are the explanations. From the pull them down group: “Over the years we have been promised that the chestnut trees would be taken down and saplings of different types of trees planted. Every year we are plagued with teenagers throwing stones and iron bars to get the conkers, which are liable to damage cars and property.” Quite simply, the opposition claimed there was no damage to any cars or property and that the trees should stay.
A council report read: “If all the trees were to be removed then, in the majority of cases, there would be merely a thinning of the avenue effect.” They did warn that a lack of funding could mean no alternative trees being planted. Well, Councillor Lishman did say that democracy should be put in place.
Never mind all that, it was match night at the Turf with Millwall our visitors but before all that, there was news on the Ray Ingleby bid for the club and also news on a potential signing that was not going to happen.
There had been rumours that Ingleby might move on to another club if Burnley continued to ignore him; Preston were a club mentioned. But the Ingleby camp confirmed that it would be Burnley or nothing for him. His UK associate David Parry reported: “It really is Burnley or nothing. He has been indirectly approached by Preston, another Second Division club and a Scottish club, but he just isn’t interested.” Parry added: “As far as I know there is still no news from the Shackleton camp as he tries to make the imaginary deadline, but even if that falls though, I would be surprised if the current board would even talk to Ray, they just don’t want to know him.” Shackleton remained unavailable for comment.
There had been some sensational news on the football side as rumours spread that former central defender Steve Davis was on his way back to Turf Moor from Luton. Stan Ternent had hoped to open negotiations with him but Luton were not willing to allow those talks.
No Davis, but Frank Petter Kval was back in Burnley, bidding to win a full time move to the Clarets. Brann Bergen had recalled him from his loan to allow him to come back to Burnley for this second trial. Should that happen, it looked as though it would end Burnley’s interest in loan goalkeeper Gavin Ward although he was keen to make the move a permanent one.
Moving in the other direction, Mark Winstanley looked set to become the first of the (in)famous four to be shipped out. He’d been linked with a move to Scarborough.
For the Clarets, it was a home midweek game against Millwall and it proved to be Andy Cooke’s night just days after his bad miss at Walsall had cost us a potential victory.
This proved to be a much, much better Burnley performance all round with some stand out performances from the likes of Chris Brass, Peter Swan and Glen Little, but it was Cooke who would take the honours, scoring both goals in this 2-1 victory.
There were early chances for all of Cooke, Little and Andy Payton but at the other end, Neil Harris and former Burnley loan player Paul Shaw were threatening. It was Burnley, though, who went in front with less than a quarter of the game gone.
Little flicked the ball through to Payton who held it up so well before sliding in a pass for Cooke. Bursting into the box, COOKE unleashed a superb, angled drive that left Millwall goalkeeper Tony Roberts helpless.
It took us just a few minutes for that lead to be doubled. We worked so hard to win the ball back through Brass and Carl Smith who found Little. This time, Little lifted a ball over the top for Cooke to chase. Striker COOKE brushed aside Millwall’s Brian Law before smashing a piledriver of a shot into the net past Roberts.
Two goals in front at half time, we went looking for a third that would have surely seen them off. Gordon Armstrong, Neil Moore and Payton all went close but then followed a warning for the Clarets with both Jimmy Carter and Stuart Nethercott having good chances for Millwall.
Cooke was close to completing a hat trick with a fortuitous cross-cum-shot but we looked to have seen them off before Carter crossed from the right for SHAW to score from close range. There was less than a minute to go; there were no more alarms and we ran out 2-1 winners.
Manager Ternent said: “There has been a bit more fight, and we are having a go. We worked hard against Millwall and deserved the win, but we want more of the same.”
The teams were;
Burnley: Gavin Ward, Chris Brass, Neil Moore (Chris Scott 77), Peter Swan, Gordon Armstrong, Glen Little, Carl Smith, Mark Robertson, Paul Smith, Andy Cooke, Andy Payton. Subs not used: Matt Heywood, Colin Carr-Lawton.
Millwall: Tony Roberts, Marc Bircham, Jamie Stuart, Bobby Bowry, Brian Law (Stuart Nethercott 35), Scott Fitzgerald, Stephen Roche (Lucas Neill 58), Tim Cahill, Neil Harris, Paul Shaw, Jimmy Carter. Sub not used: Danny Hockton.
Referee: David Pugh (Wirral).
Attendance: 8,526.
Besides Shaw, there was another goal for ex and future Claret Steve Davis who scored in Luton’s 3-1 win at Wigan. Phil Gray, who himself would become a Claret in 2000, was also on the scoresheet for Luton.
Bournemouth and Fulham were both held to draws, Bournemouth at home against Blackpool and Fulham at Oldham. That allowed Stoke, winners at Colchester, to move four points clear at the top of the table. Down at the other end, Wycombe’s draw at home against Bristol Rovers was their first point of the season although they remained bottom but now just one point behind Macclesfield. We went up to fourteenth with the win but by the time the Wednesday games had been played, Colchester had moved ahead of us on goal difference. It was a four place climb in the table.
Division Two Results
Monday 31st August
Colchester 0 Stoke 1
Macclesfield 0 Notts County 1
Northampton 0 Lincoln 0
Oldham 1 Fulham 1
Preston 2 Chesterfield 0
Wigan 1 Luton 3
Wycombe 1 Bristol Rovers 1
Tuesday 1st September
Bournemouth 1 Blackpool 1
Burnley 2 Millwall 1
Gillingham 4 Wrexham 0
Tuesday 2nd September
Manchester City 3 Walsall 1
Burnley Goalscorers
2: Andy Cooke, Andy Payton
1; Gordon Armstrong
Leading Goalscorers
4: Stuart Barlow (Wigan), Dean Crowe (Stoke), Shaun Goater (Manchester City), Barry Hayles (Bristol Rovers), Graham Kavanagh (Stoke), Kurt Nogan (Preston)
3: Steve Davis (Luton), Ian Hendon (Notts County), Jon Macken (Preston)
League Table
| Pos | Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | gd | pts |
| 1 | Stoke | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 15 |
| 2 | Bournemouth | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 11 |
| 3 | Fulham | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 11 |
| 4 | Preston | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 10 |
| 5 | Luton | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| 6 | Walsall | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| 7 | Bristol Rovers | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 8 |
| 8 | Manchester City | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 8 |
| 9 | Notts County | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 8 |
| 10 | York | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| 11 | Wrexham | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 7 |
| 12 | Millwall | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 7 |
| 13 | Gillingham | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 6 |
| 14 | Colchester | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 6 |
| 15 | Burnley | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 7 | -2 | 6 |
| 16 | Chesterfield | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 6 |
| 17 | Lincoln | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 5 |
| 18 | Blackpool | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 5 |
| 19 | Oldham | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 4 |
| 20 | Wigan | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 8 | -2 | 3 |
| 21 | Northampton | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | -3 | 3 |
| 22 | Reading | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 3 |
| 23 | Macclesfield | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 2 |
| 24 | Wycombe | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 9 | -6 | 1 |
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