Dave's take on the Fulham draw...
Dave Thornley offers his opinion on yesterday’s game of fluctuating fortunes for Clarets Mad or Mad Clarets everywhere.
At half time in yesterday’s Premier League fixture against Fulham at Turf Moor, I, along with my fellow Clarets fans, were speculating on whether by this time next week Steve Cooper, Graham Potter or, less likely, Jose Mourinho would be Burnley manager.
A conversation prompted having witnessing a truly dire first half performance from Vincent Kompany’s Clarets.
Burnley were static, uncoordinated, error-strewn and lacking both imagination and good old-fashioned grit. They found themselves trailing by two softly conceded goals to nil against a Fulham team for whom Turf Moor has been a graveyard since time immemorial.
The first, an easily preventable corner was flicked home at the near post, then just a few moments later, a hoik down field invited a chip over James Trafford who was stuck in no mans land after advancing to retrieve the ball, then changing his mind.
Before the second half got underway, the Burnley players huddled together by the corner of the Cricket Field and James Hargreaves stands, a publicly visible attempt to gee themselves up and haul themselves back into the game.
For large portions of the second half, it didn’t look to be working, Fulham continued to control possession and carve out several presentable chances. Fortunately for Burnley, Trafford had put his first half trauma behind him and produced an equal number of good saves to prevent the visitors from putting the game further beyond Burnley’s grasp.
Burnley brought in three loan signings in the January transfer window; Lorenz Assignon, a right back possessing boyband looks and genuine pace; Maxime Esteve, a physically imposing central defender and David Datro Fofana a striker from Chelsea. All three played a part in the game and all three must have at times wondered what they had let themselves in for.
After 71 minutes, Assignon sprinted down the left wing after being fed by Lyle Foster’s clever pass; his deep cross evaded the grasping hand of Fulham keeper Bernd Leno and was smartly headed into the corner of his goal by the leaping Fofana.
The start of a comeback or merely a consolation? The fans thought the former and their urging allowed the team to believe the same.
It was in stoppage time when another left wing cross, this time delivered low to the near post by Wilson Odobert, was met by a tangle of legs belonging to Fofana and Fulham’s Ream. Fortunately, the decisive touch was Fofana’s who scrambled the ball into the net with a finish that was much cleverer that it first appeared when seen on reply.
Fofana celebrated with the crowd and earned himself a yellow card, but he and the crowd cared not a jot. Burnley had indeed hauled themselves back to parity in a game in which they had performed poorly and, in the process, gained their first point of the season from a losing position.
This was sporting larceny not quite on the scale of England at Hyderabad, but not so far off and it was a pleasant change to walk home from Turf Moor feeling something other than dejection. But despite the comeback, despite the fighting spirit they showed in the second half, this was, like the Luton game, a match Burnley needed to win but could only draw.
Come on You Clarets! (TEC.)
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