McCann Returns & Scores in Kiev Game

The Clarets played a training game against Dynamo Kiev yesterday in Portugal and although we lost 2-1 there was a welcome return for Chris McCann.

McCann has had a torrid time with injuries this seaosn. He picked up a serious injury in the game against Sunderland at Turf Moor back in September. The damage to his cruciate and medial ligaments had kept him sidelined until January when he returned in our FA Cup clash against Reading at the Madejeski. In our next match though against Bolton at the Reebok, he picked up another knee injury in the first few minutes of the game and hobbled off. Thankfully this was not too serious and was not a recurrence of the original injury. McCann had returned to training but had still not played since the Bolton game.

Burnley had no scheduled game to play over this weekend having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Reading. The 5th Round ties are being played today and there are no Premier League fixtures.

Brian Laws took advanatge of the break to take his squad over to Portugal for some team-bonding and training in warmer conditions.

They also arranged a training game yesterday afternoon against Ukranian League leaders, Dynamo Kiev. The idea had been to take the team to sunnier climes but a torrential downpour in the morning had threatened to cancel the match. Thankfully though it cleared up enough for the match to proceed.

Burnley put out quite a strong team with Laws selecting a number of the players who were knocking on the door for a starting eleven place.Eagles, Bikey and Elliott were three players who also came on to play from the bench.

Stephen Jordan who had been suffering from a hamstring injury also made a return along with McCann. Our new keeper, Nicky Weaver had the chance to play for the full 90 minutes.

The team lined up as follows:

Weaver, Eckersley, Duff, Jordan, Kalvenes, Cork, McCann, Blake, Nimani, Thompson, Paterson

Subs Used: Eagles, Bikey, Elliott

Chris McCann played for 45 minutes and indeed played well and scored our goal.

Laws talking about the match said:

'I was delighted with how we played. Chris looked good and obviously it was nice to see him back on the pitch. Jack Cork was excellent, Chris Eagles did well when he came on, Nimani had a good game and was unlucky not to score and they all did well'

The Clarets are flying home today (Saturday 13th Feb) with our next game against Aston Villa at Villa Park a week tomorrow (Sunday 21st Feb @2pm KO)

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