Poor finishing hands Burnley 3 points

Dean Ashton

The game it’s self was open although not the greatest of performances from either team, I would have thought. So much hype over the week just meant more disappointment if or when we did lose.

Burnley had a tight grip on today from the off. Although they had a good amount of possession they see afraid to shoot and rarely challenged Ince. The likes of Luke Chadwick and Mohammed Camara on the Burnley left side troubled Wright and Lunt down the wings. Glenn Little on the right also gave Vaughan some work to do but Little rarely got past little Vaughan.

For 20 minutes we were never really at the game while Burnley had the chances.

Camara inside the first 15 minutes gave Ince his first troubles when a ball found it’s was to Camara deep on the by-line and Camara’s cross/shot was parried down by Ince before he gathered it up.

Chaplow for Burnley then shot over from 20 yards, while Ince looked cool and calm about it, it only just went over. Meanwhile Crewe were finding it hard to get any sort of control on the ball with it always breaking down in midfield. Crewe’s best chances were from corners and when Brammers 20 yard curler was saved by Brian Jensen in the Burnley goal.

Burnley meanwhile were afraid to shoot. They had large majority of threatening possession and just wasted it through refusing to shoot until they were 4 yards out. It was quite understandable why the home fans were chanting for their team to have a shot.

The best chance of the first half fell to Burnley Glenn Little finally got the better of Vaughany and squared it across the face of the goal and on the far post Chaplow just had to stick a foot out to score but missed his opportunity.

At the end of the half Crewe’s best chance came from a Dean Ashton header which went wide of the far post.

The game in the first half wasn’t overly impressive. Burnley were poor in area’s, like attacking and sometimes defending yet over powered us in midfield while we were poor in midfield but were decent enough in defence.

The second half started with Burnley pressing us again. Six minutes in and the opening goal was scored by Burnley’s Chaplow. Dean West got the better of Vaughan and his cross was hit to the right of Ince, who despite stretching couldn’t quite tip the ball away.

This gave Burnley more incentive to go on a get the second, which would really have killed Crewe off. Glenn Little smashed over when clear on goal only a couple of minutes after the goal.

On the 57^th minute Burnley were award a rather suspect penalty. Dean Ashton was simply clearing the ball and after Burnley fans had shouted handball the linesman stuck his flag up and a penalty was awarded. Not saying the Burnley fans had a say in what the linesman did – wouldn’t suggest such a thing!

Robbie Blake stepped up as Burnley fans prepared for a 2-0 lead but Blake hit his penalty just about the right height for Ince who parried it away – making it clear he is the divisions best keeper.

10 minutes later Steve Jones could have and should have equalised. Deano powered his was into the right of the pnalty area with squaring the ball across goal for Jonah, Jonah though hit a poor shot straight onto the post. All he had to do was roll it on target.

After Dario changed things with Cochrane going off for the injury free Neil Sorvel and Moses hobbling off with a hamstring injury to be replace with Chris McCready. Rix also went off with Allan Smart making his second Alex apparence. Everything slowed down and the pace had gone.

Few more chances were made and Burnley played keep ball while Jonah and Smart were a yard short on two squared balls from Ashton and Lunt. At the end Jones smashed over.

There was nothing else to report on. I thought it was two teams way below their best battling it out for a 1-0 win. The team were generally poor with Wright & Brammer being the only outfield players who impressed abit. I don’t agree with Dario we deserved something from it, our poor finishing alone showed we deserved nothing.

better finishing needs to be worked on. I can’t help but think that if we had Hulse, or the type of striker Hulse is, we would have won it today. We had a winger and a striker who refuses to go within 10 yards of the goal up front. Where’s the striker to score these tap-ins and the little easy goals?

Simple, we haven’t got one. We’re one player short of being a good division one side.