Burnley 1-3 Brighton & Hove Albion

Off to an awful start

Saturday 10 August 2002

The build up to the new season has been low key. And the expectations of the fans remain low after a poor finish to the last campaign and a failure to strengthen the squad during the summer. However, there was a feeling of enthusiasm that a successful start could be made with three points garnered by defeating newly promoted Brighton in this first fixture of the season.

But a disappointing opening day attendance of less than 15,000 saw the Clarets soundly beaten by the newcomers, and will have returned home with a degree of concern for the coming months.

Burnley began the match with a 4-4-2 formation, but it quickly became apparent that Arthur Gnohere had been charged with covering up the mistakes of the woeful Graham Branch, as well as fulfilling his more traditional centre back role. With almost 600 professional players finding themselves without a contract as the season begins, it seems sinful that Branch commands a wage from Burnley. He was simply awful for the entire first half, and was duly replaced by Ian Cox as the second half began.

Branch was not the only Clarets player to avoid earning any praise. The two £ million duo of Ian Moore and Robbie Blake looked like they had turned up by mistake when they would rather have been on holiday. Ternent later described Blake as "hopeless", which was a generous assessment of the contribution he made. Also lacking in effort and endeavour were the midfield pairing of Lee Briscoe and Tony Grant. Both failed to make any lasting impression, and left you wondering just why the club had allowed Kevin Ball to move on to new pastures.

On the plus side were Gareth Taylor's efforts at the head of the team. He used his noggin to good effect throughout the match, and would surely have created two or three goals if he had been joined by an effective strike partner. It was Taylor who provided Burnley's only moment of joy when he knocked down Dean West's corner for Briscoe to convert a consolation goal late in the game.

Brighton's goals were well taken, though should have been avoided with ease. In the first half Bobby Zamora crossed for Steve Melton to fire home. In the second, Paul Brooker cut through the home defence with terrifying ease to score a second. And Zamora claimed a goal of his own when Michopoulos spilled the ball into his path.

Things may have been better if the Clarets had retained eleven men on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. However, Gnohere was dismissed with a straight red card after appearing to retaliate to the unwelcome attentions of Gary Hart. It was difficult to tell whether any connection was made by Gnohere, but he should know that attempting to retaliate will often be enough for most referees to start waving the cards. At this stage Burnley were only a goal behind, but it was always going to be an uphill struggle for the remaining 40 minutes against a team brimming with enthusiasm.

Dimitri Papadopoulos replaced Blake, and Paul Weller took the place of Moore. Papa looked lively but retains an ability to go to ground whenever an opposing player comes within five feet of him. Weller did his best, and came close with a shot that curled just wide of the top corner of Michel Kuipers' goal.

It is difficult to know exactly why Burnley played quite so badly in this opening game. Certainly they were up against a team still high on the back of consecutive promotions. But perhaps we can look at the poor quality of the opposition we played in the preseason friendlies. Only Bolton could be considered suitable opponents for a team that harbours ambitions of challenging for the Premiership. Wrexham, Luton and Bury can hardly have been stern enough tests, and it seems that many of the Burnley players were simply not ready for the competition provided by Brighton.

EL Grover