The View from 1882...

Burnley Win Shield

Burnley 1-0 Plymouth
Blake (66)

According to the official Plymouth site our triumph over Argyle on Saturday gave us the John Cooper Clarke Shield after a Robbie Blake volley provided our first home win since Norwich were unconvincingly despatched back on October 23rd last year.

There were four changes to the starting eleven from the match against Arsenal. The most notable of which was the welcome return of Brian Jensen who replaced Gabor Kiraly. Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty and match winner Robbie Blake, who was amongst the substitutes were replaced in the starting eleven by David Unsworth, Steve Jones and Joey Gudjonsson. Ade Akinbiyi was out with a back injury although alarming rumours are circulating he could be heading to Preston.

Plymouth were never in the game and the game should have been won by a more comfortable margin.

Burnley dominated throughout and attacked from the start and a Wade Elliott shot in the first few minutes landed on the roof of the net.

Another chance fell to Gray after 17 minutes, but he was unable to pounce to push home from a great cross from Elliott.
Joey Gudjonsson fired a shot narrowly over from 30 yards with 26 minutes gone.

After half an hour another Elliott cross was put wide by Gudjonsson.

Then shortly after another brilliant Elliott cross was headed poorly wide by Steve Jones.

Plymouth then cracked one over from 40 yards, but I'm not sure whether you can really class it as a chance.

Half time arrived and Burnley were well in control, but the more chances we spurned the more it looked as if the winless home run was to continue.

Fortunately things were to change in the second half

Burnley started the second half as we finished the first in complete control, but not able to score the goal we so deserved.

A last ditch tackle that prevented Jones from scoring after an Andy Gray shot was saved made you wonder if it was going to be one of those days where Plymouth would get one chance, score it and win 1-0.

Burnley did have the ball in the net with 56 minutes gone, but we were rightly flagged offside by the linesman as Steve Jones slid the ball home.

Jones was immediately after substituted by Blake.

On 66 minutes Burnley's luck finally changed when another exquisite Elliott cross was superbly volleyed in by Robbie Blake to send the home crowd into raptures of delight.

Another Blake effort from 40 yards on 71 minutes looked destined for the top corner after a clever free kick routine, but was superbly saved by McCormick in the Plymouth goal.

Burnley were relentlessly pushing for a second and a Graham Alexander effort from the edge of the box from the corner following Blake's effort was well saved by the keeper.

A scramble at the end momentarily looked like a Plymouth equaliser, but the ball rolled tamely into Jensen's hands and that was that. A deserved 3 points for Burnley.

Man of the Match:
Wade Elliott

An excellent performance on the wing. Provided numerous excellent crosses which could and really should have led to more goals.

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