Grant makes debut in 6-0 rout of Oldham Reserves

Our Clarets second-string got their 2010-11 totesport.com campaign off to a flying start last night defeating Oldham Athletic 6-0 at Staybridge. Lee Grant also made his competitive debut for the Clarets keeping a clean sheet.

This fixture was originally going to be the 'home' match to be played at Accrington Stanley's Crown Ground but once again Accy were unable to host the game due to pitch problems so the home and away fixtures were switched.

Last night's fixture was therefore the away game against Oldham Athletic and was played at Bower Fold, the home of Stalybridge Celtic.

Clarets fans though will now be pleased to learn that all future Reserves home games this season will be played at Turf Moor now that our own new pitch renovations have also been completed.

Burnley fielded a very strong team last night giving an opportunity for those players on the periphery of the first team starting eleven to get in some match practice

We lined up as follows:

Grant, Eckersley, Long, Edgar, Easton, MacDonald, McDonald, Anderson, Rodriguez, Fletcher, King

Subs: Williams, Knowles, Wilson, McKee, Jackson, D.Lynch

Three of those subs saw some action before the game was over. Ed Williams replaced Richard Eckersley at half-time, Dominic Knowles came on for Jay Rodriguez with 15 minutes left to play and finally Ross Wilson played the last ten minutes of the game after replacing Wes Fletcher.

David Edgar, red-carded in Saturday's first team game in the Championship at Portman Rd against Ipswich and facing a one match ban took advantage of his lay-off from first team football by playing in the Reserves. He was also made captain for the match

Burnley as the scoreline would suggest completely dominated this game from beginning to end. In between Oldham hitting the woodwork in the early stages of the game and again towards the end, they were picking the ball out of the net six times and indeed it could have been even more of an embarrassing score if Rodriguez had managed to score from the penalty spot in the first half. The keeper saved with his legs though.

The Clarets were 2-0 up at half-time and then in the second half scored a remarkable four goals over a ten minute spell in the last fifteen minutes of the game.

Goal Number 1-Easton 8 minutes

Goal Number 2-Edgar 25 minutes

Goal Number 3-Fletcher 72 minutes

Goal Number 4-Rodriguez 74 minutes

Goal Number 5-McDonald 78 minutes

Goal Number 6-Fletcher 82 minutes

The Clarets played with great spirit and determination with those players fighting for a first team place looking up for the match and trying to make an impression. This will have pleased both Brian Laws and Development & Reserve Team Coach,Ashley Hoskin.

Clarets fans subscribed to Clarets Player will be able to see the goals on there from tomorrow (Thurs 18)

If you want to read more about this game there is a match report on the Official Burnley Website which you can find by clicking this link:

Oldham Res 0 Burnley Res 6

Burnley Reserves next match will be away to Morecambe on Wednesday August 25.

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