More misery with big loss at Bournemouth
Stan Ternent vowed to continue as Burnley manager following the FA Cup defeat against Darlington, but things were no better four days later when we suffered a heavy defeat against Bournemouth at Dean Court.
It was a difficult time for Burnley lady Elsie Foulds who had lost her husband. She was heartbroken and appealed to the public to help find him. It was not as simple as first believed; Elsie’s husband had passed away over three years earlier and she had since carried his ashes around in a box in her handbag.
She had been with friends to see a performance of ‘Barnum’ at the Mechanics but there was no trace of either the box or handbag there or in the taxi in which she went home. A distraught Mrs Foulds said: “I haven’t let the ashes from my side since he died. I can’t understand where they could have gone. Maybe someone has picked it up not knowing what it was.”
Another poor Burnley lady had bailiffs banging on her door, sent there by council tax officers, after she apparently owed money for a house that she never knew she owned. Mum of three Mrs Helen Chafler explained: “I just think this whole thing has been really ridiculous. One minute they say I owe them £206, then they say I owe £25.81 and the last I heard it was 81p.”
She’d lived at the house in Lowerhouse Lane for a time with her ex-partner but had not lived there in over three years. However, when her ex-partner died, the council assumed her responsible although she had explained the situation. In response, a spokeswoman for Burnley Borough Council said: “We followed the normal procedures and Mrs Chafler was sent a bill, a reminder and a summons before the bailiff. We only found out there was no one living in the property in September so our records were amended, and we only found out yesterday that the house was repossessed in October. She had a balance of 81p which will be written off.”
All pubs and clubs in Burnley had been put on alert against terror CS gas attacks with health and council chiefs having teamed up to issue tips on how to deal with the dangerous spray. Two pubs had already come under attack. One woman collapsed with an asthma attack at the Britannia Inn with thirty regular fleeing the pub coughing and vomiting. The spray had also been used at the Duke of York (that’s the pub, not the bloke who allegedly cost the late Queen a lot of money) when a fight broke out.
There was some good news to be had. The fundraising for Pendleside Hospice had reached £2 million since its opening. Mr Trevor Jones, the treasurer, reported that donations and gifts had totalled almost £330,000 and the hospice charity shops had contributed a staggering £100,000. Mr Jones urged caution though with costs rising and expenditure expected to exceed £800,000 in 1999.
Ian Carlton, a 27-year-old man, appeared in court charged with driving while disqualified. There were two separate charges; he’d been caught driving on 10th November and then again four days later. Mr Philip Holden (defending) explained things when he told the court that Mr Carlton had used the car after he had split from his wife and had felt the strain of bringing up his two children. This had been compounded when his wife came round to empty the house and in his desperation he had visited a solicitor in Burnley and was on his way there when he was caught driving a short distance.
The magistrates adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report and he was set to appear again on 1st December but I was surprised to read that he was remanded in custody. That was until I saw that the two charges brought were the 13th and 14th disqualified driving charges that had been brought against him since he’d been banned.
Burnley was set to get its Big Window back. The pub on Manchester Road had been renamed JJ Murphy’s but an application for structural alterations was granted by the magistrates and the licensee confirmed that the pub’s old name would be restored.
After calls for the board of directors of Burnley Football Club to speak to fans, a call brought by the Clarets Independent Supporters’ Association, they had finally bowed to the pressure. All recognised supporters’ clubs had been invited with all permitted to have two representatives in attendance. Even the chairman Frank Teasdale was expected to attend.
Meanwhile, the Burnley Express published several critical letters from disgruntled fans following that Darlington defeat with them all hoping we could have an upturn in our fortunes at Bournemouth back in league action.
Stan Ternent had some good news too ahead of the trip. Both Andy Cooke and Gordon Armstrong were available again having completed suspensions and Mark Robertson was declared fit having missed five games. Added to that, John O’Kane, who was ineligible for the cup game, was back in contention.
If the cup defeat was bad, then in many ways this was even worse. The Burnley fans, who had travelled to the Dorset coast in big numbers, left the terraces with heads bowed and demanding answers after another abject performance that saw us lose the game 5-0. The majority of the fans were venting their anger at chairman Teasdale and his board, demanding to know why they could not find an appropriate time to hold a meeting with Ray Ingleby, a man waiting to pump in some much needed money.
Those fans were fully behind Ternent who clearly had his hands tied. Ternent was wanting to bring in better players but it was believed the money he had available after spending £75,000 on goalkeeper Paul Crichton was now down to around £175,000. Sunday newspapers on the following day were predicting that the board were very close to dispensing with his services but there was neither logic nor sense in that.
He wasn’t devoid of all the blame though and he really needed to improve the discipline with this game seeing Burnley suffer a fourth red card of the season to add to the mauling from Bournemouth. This time it was Steve Morgan who was sent off, following Peter Swan, Andy Cooke and Andy Payton in games against Reading, Macclesfield and Darlington.
We were under the cosh for much of the first half but with Chris Brass in commanding form at the heart of a back four, Bournemouth had hardly caused Crichton many problems. We’d looked lively in the opening minutes but the home side soon took command. They forced corner after corner but the only threat on Crichton’s goal came when he was forced to clawed away a shot from Steve Robinson that had deflected off Bournemouth defender Ian Cox.
Then Morgan saw red four minutes before half time, a second yellow card, after an accumulation of several fouls. Given that we’d struggled with eleven players on the pitch, an uphill battle was sensed now we were down to ten and that’s exactly what we got.
Ten minutes into the second half, the door was opened when Christer WARREN slid in to hook a shot past Crichton and the same player went on a dazzling run five minutes later that ended with him going down for a penalty that really should have seen Crichton sent off and leaving us with nine men. Astonishingly, the new goalkeeper didn’t even receive a yellow card but we paid the price when the spot kick was converted by ROBINSON. Just a couple of minutes later, Crichton again was very fortunate not to be sent off for blocking Mark Stein but he did get a yellow card this time, one of four Burnley players to be carded alongside Morgan.
Once the second goal had gone in, our heads dropped and the lack of any sort of conviction from the team was criminal. You sensed more goals, and they came.
Bournemouth won a corner from which Eddie Howe saw a shot blocked but it rebounded to ROBINSON who scored his second and their third. John Bailey’s slide rule pass presented STEIN with a chance to make it 4-0 which he did with ease and right at the end, STEIN completed the scoring with his second, picking up a pass from substitute Dani Rodrigues and arrowing a shot into the top corner.
It had been described by the Burnley Express as a Seaside Shambles but I was not convinced it was even that good. Neither was the manager. Feeling suicidal on the previous Tuesday night at Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium, he admitted: “I have never been associated with anything like that in my career. It was a bad day at the office.
“At the minute, I think we are bottoming out at rock bottom, and from now, it can’t get any worse. It is a difficult time for the players, and me and the staff, but the character has to come through now. We got thumped again, which I dislike immensely, but we have to stick together.”
He repeated: “I will turn it around. I don’t know how long it will take, but I will do it. Someone has to do it and I’m up for it. I have said I will stay if they will have me.”
Speaking about Morgan’s red card, Ternent said: “I am annoyed with our discipline, but at the end of the day, people aren’t allowed to make mistakes any more. You can’t mis-time a tackle, and I’ve never met anyone who has never made a mistake. It is a defender and midfielder’s job to tackle and win the ball, and there is no room for error now. I have been to see the referee and asked him if he had something against me as he did the same when I was at Bury.”
The teams were;
Bournemouth: Mark Ovendale, Eddie Howe, Neil Young, Ian Cox, John Bailey, Jon O’Neil, Christer Warren, Steve Robinson (Antony Griffin 90), Richard Hughes (Dani Rodrigues 85), Jamie Vincent, Mark Stein. Sub not used: Michael Dean.
Burnley: Paul Crichton, John O’Kane, Chris Brass, Brian Reid, Steve Morgan, Glen Little, Mark Robertson, Mark Ford, Phil Eastwood (Brad Maylett 61), Andy Cooke, Andy Payton. Subs not used: Matt Heywood, Rune Vindheim.
Referee: John Brandwood (Lichfield).
Attendance: 5,907.
Wins for the top two Stoke and Fulham had moved them four and three points clear at the top with all of the next three in the table picking up one point each from draws. There was no change at the bottom with the same four places occupying the relegation places.
Burnley had dropped one place in the table to 18th and remained three points clear of that bottom four.
There was just one player with Burnley connections on the scoresheet; Phil Gray scored in Luton’s 2-2 draw at bottom club Lincoln.
Division Two Results
Saturday 21st November
Blackpool 0 Preston 0
Bournemouth 5 Burnley 0
Fulham 2 Chesterfield 1
Lincoln 2 Luton 2
Macclesfield 1 Walsall 1
Manchester City 0 Gillingham 0
Millwall 1 Bristol Rovers 1
Northampton 0 Reading 1
Notts County 1 Colchester 3
Oldham 3 Wrexham 2
Stoke 2 York 0
Wigan 0 Wycombe 0
Burnley Goalscorers (League)
10: Andy Payton
5: Andy Cooke
2: Rune Vindheim
1; Gordon Armstrong, Phil Eastwood, Glen Little, Brian Reid
Burnley Goalscorers (Cups)
3: Andy Payton
1: Andy Cooke
Leading Goalscorers
10: Carl Asaba (Gillingham), Andy Payton (Burnley), Mark Stein (Bournemouth)
9: Richard Cresswell (York), Barry Hayles (Bristol Rovers), Andy Rammell (Walsall), Martin Williams (Reading)
8: Stuart Barlow (Wigan), Shaun Goater (Manchester City)
7: Grant Brebner (Reading), Carlo Corazzin (Northampton), Kurt Nogan (Preston), Paul Shaw (Millwall)
League Table
| Pos | Team | pld | w | d | l | f | a | gd | pts |
| 1 | Stoke | 19 | 13 | 1 | 5 | 29 | 15 | 14 | 40 |
| 2 | Fulham | 17 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 28 | 13 | 15 | 39 |
| 3 | Walsall | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 29 | 24 | 5 | 36 |
| 4 | Preston | 18 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 32 | 17 | 15 | 33 |
| 5 | Gillingham | 19 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 28 | 18 | 10 | 30 |
| 6 | Chesterfield | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 28 |
| 7 | Luton | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 28 |
| 8 | Manchester City | 19 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 28 |
| 9 | Bournemouth | 17 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 29 | 19 | 10 | 27 |
| 10 | Millwall | 19 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 19 | 21 | -2 | 27 |
| 11 | Blackpool | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 24 | 23 | 1 | 26 |
| 12 | Reading | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 21 | 24 | -3 | 26 |
| 13 | Wigan | 18 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 22 | 18 | 4 | 24 |
| 14 | Colchester | 18 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 19 | 23 | -4 | 23 |
| 15 | Bristol Rovers | 19 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 22 | 23 | -1 | 22 |
| 16 | Notts County | 18 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 24 | -3 | 21 |
| 17 | Wrexham | 19 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 19 | 27 | -8 | 21 |
| 18 | Burnley | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 21 | 30 | -9 | 20 |
| 19 | York | 18 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 22 | 32 | -10 | 20 |
| 20 | Macclesfield | 19 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 17 | 24 | -7 | 19 |
| 21 | Northampton | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 17 | 22 | -5 | 17 |
| 22 | Oldham | 19 | 4 | 4 | 11 | 17 | 30 | -13 | 16 |
| 23 | Wycombe | 19 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 25 | -9 | 15 |
| 24 | Lincoln | 18 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 18 | 34 | -16 | 12 |
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