The View from 1882

A Thunderbolt amongst the Storm

Burnley 1-0 Charlton

Elliott (59)

I thought we were very poor against Stoke ,lucky not to lose and looking towards the Charlton game I and many others thought if we don`t win it will put us out of the Play Off picture.

Thankfully we did win thanks to Wade Elliott`s first of the season and it was a ripsnorter of a goal too. The match saw the return of Andy Gray to Turf Moor after his disappointing move to Charlton. Needless to say he wasn`t welcomed back by the Burnley supporters. Thankfully he didn`t score against us as ex-players have a habit of doing.

It was a cold, windswept, stormy night at Turf Moor. A lot of people might not like matches in that weather, but I love them.

The first opening of the night came our way as James O`Connor headed slightly over the bar.

A cross from Blake nearly brought an own goal with 17 minutes gone. A diving header from Charlton`s McCarthy cleared the bar, but nearly found the net.

Jerome Thomas fired over for Charlton shortly afterwards.

Much of the rest of the half passed without much happening and at half time we had 45 minutes to keep ourselves in reasonable contention for the playoffs.

Early in the second half it was heart in mouth time or heart in bum time if your heart sank as Andy Gray broke through on goal after a mistake from Alexander.

Fortunately the backtracking Carlisle slid in superbly with Gray bearing down on goal to put the ball out for a corner.

Then came Elliott`s moment of magic. Blake with Elliott alongside him on the edge of the area passed the ball across to Elliott who thumped a curling shot first time into the top corner past the sprawling Weaver in the Charlton goal. The net rippled! The crowd erupted! Burnley were back in the hunt for the top 6! In truth many were on their feet with the shot in mid-flight you could tell it was destined for the net almost immediately after he hit it.

Moments later Harley almost grabbed a second from a little way outside the area. Disappointingly though his thunderous shot narrowly missed the target.

We had a third decent effort on 63 minutes this one also going close as Alan Mahon tried his luck, but went narrowly wide.

Entering the final 10 minutes of normal time Charlton missed a sitter after a poor clearance from Alexander teed Luke Varney up for a free header. With the goal gaping he headed wide to large sighs of relief throughout Turf Moor.

4 minutes were added on at the end which we saw out relatively comfortably to fire ourselves right back into the Play Off Picture.

It was a strange match not much happened. It wasn`t the most entertaining match, but at the end of the day we took 3 points off our Play Off rivals Charlton and moved to within a point of them so all in all a fairly good night`s work.

Now we look to Wolves on Saturday. So many times recently we`ve been within 1 game of getting into the top 6. Beat Wolves and the chances are we will be in the top 6 Saturday night. We have to take an opportunity to break into the top 6 soon because the games are ticking down fast. Is Saturday our time? Could we be heading down Wembley Way in just over 2 months time? Only time will tell…..

Man of the Match: Wade Elliott

It is hard to pick a man of the match for this game. The game always looked like it would take something special to break the deadlock and Wade provided it so for that reason he wins the award.

EET






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