Wells, Wells it’s Nahki’s night
Burnley’s under-23 team made it two wins out of two in the Premier League Cup with a 4-0 win against Colchester United on a night when Nahki Wells firmly introduced himself as a Burnley player.
Wells, a late signing from Huddersfield at the end of the transfer window, has been making his way back to fitness following minor surgery to an old ankle injury. He’s made his way back with a behind closed doors appearance in a friendly against Sheffield United and then a full ninety minutes against the same opposition in the Professional Development league ten days ago.
Tonight, he got in a further ninety minutes and helped himself to a first half hat trick in front of watching first team coach Tony Loughlan at Curzon Ashton.
All the goals came in the first half and maybe Colchester will reflect on that and wonder how they were four behind at the interval, this after missing a sitter with only a few minutes gone when they overran the ball after going past goalkeeper Aidan Stone. A goal then would have been unjust on Burnley; quite how the flag didn’t go up for offside only the assistant will ever know.
We soon took advantage. Only a couple of minutes later we were in front with Wells scoring his first ever Burnley goal. We won a corner on the left which was met by Mark Howarth, but his effort reached Wells who made no mistake, rifling the ball high into the net.
Defender Harry Flowers was forced off midway through the half with injury. His replacement James Clarke was back partnering Oliver Younger, two players who are still part of the youth squad. They didn’t have too much defending to do and in the last ten minutes of the half we took the game away from Colchester.
Wells added his second with a good finish after the ball had been played in by Ali Koiki and four minutes from the break it was 3-0 when Nashé Chakwana spectacularly volleyed home after the ball had been knocked down to him.
The first half punishment wasn’t over for Colchester. They conceded a penalty in stoppage time at the end of the half. Wells got the better of defender William Wright who paid the ultimate penalty of being shown a red card before Wells completed his hat trick from the spot.
It’s hard to believe there were no further goals in the second half. We had a number of chances which we just failed to take, Wells hit a shot against the post with the goalkeeper beaten and a couple of crosses just evaded onrushing forwards.
But the game was won to take us to six points from our opening two games in the competition with the next game against Swansea away on Monday 4th December.
As for Wells, he’ll be travelling with the first team tomorrow and his performance, and his goals, will have given manager Sean Dyche food for thought.
The teams were;
Burnley: Aidan Stone, Arlen Birch, Harry Flowers (James Clarke 23), Oliver Younger, Ali Koiki, Olatunde Bayode (Harry Limb 69), Mark Howarth (Christian N’Guessan 69), Nashé Chakwana, Dwight McNeil, Nahki Wells. Subs not used: Connor King, Jamie Thomas.
Colchester: Daniel Wilks, George Brown, Callum Sturgess, Diaz Wright (Sam Warde 65), Osase Wilson, William Wright, Tarryn Allarakhia (Oliver Kensdale ht), Charley Edge, Eoin McKeown, Tariq Issa (Dean Ager 60), Decarrey Sherriff. Sub not used: Dominic Kurasik.
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