In honour of Alex Elder...
Dave Thornley goes into full poetic remembrance mode for days gone by. Personally, I really enjoyed and absorbing contest in the rain. One dismal note however, which cretin thought it would be a great idea to disgorge 10,000 fans into a not so very OKAY corral on a bucketing down post-match Saturday afternoon in Burnley?
Turf Moor in the rain conjures up for me at least, images of football from a bygone era; one of terraces heaving with cloth cap wearing supporters, paying a couple of bob to witness baggy-shorted players hoofing rain-soaked leather balls around pitches resembling primordial swamps.
Of course, the heaving terraces are long gone, the cloth-capped supporters now turn up in the latest replica shirts, modern pitches more closely resemble billiard tables, and admission now costs anything upwards of ?40. Nevertheless, at Burnley at least, and especially on days like yesterday, football in its formative, unevolved, spartan state can at least be, if not witnessed, then easily imagined.
Not that yesterday?s 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest lacked for modern blandishments or tactical acumen, rather that some of the veneer of sophistication was washed away in the pouring rain.
One would assume that Burnley would have found these conditions more sympathetic to their style of play, but as the game unfolded, that was not necessarily the case. Indeed, it was Forest who took an early lead, their first attack resulting in a half-cleared corner which broke to Nico Williams whose shot from the edge of the box took a deflection which deceived Martin Dubravka in the Clarets? goal.
Fortunately, that was the only thing that would deceive him for the remainder of a game in which he gave a masterclass in keeping goal in treacherous conditions. He made at least three exceptional saves and was secure in dealing with Forest?s crosses into his goalmouth. In this he was ably assisted by Maxime Esteve, who was also in imperious form.
Burnley too were able to exert their own spells of pressure, Quilindschy Hartman?s fierce shot after latching onto Florentino Luis? sumptuous cross-field pass was smartly saved at his near post by Forest keeper Matz Sels, and a venomous free kick from Loum Tchaouna struck the crossbar.
In between those efforts, Jaidon Anthony scrambled Burnley?s equalizer squeezing home his stabbed shot via Sels and Oleksandr Zinchenko, after good set up play from Lyle Foster.
Both teams pressed hard for a winner in an always entertaining second half, but few could dispute that the draw was probably the right result of a game that was tightly contested but mercifully free from major controversy and the irritant of VAR intervention.
A point earned in the Premier League is a valuable commodity and, whilst there is a tinge of disappointment that Burnley did not win, it does at least nudge Scott Parker?s team a little further forward and offers more evidence that competing at this level is not beyond their capabilities.
As a footnote, and in a further nod to the history of this great club, Alex Elder, full back in Burnley?s 1960 title-winning team and captain of the Clarets in the first game I ever saw at the Turf, was presented to the crowd at half time and warmed the heart with his recounted memories of tussles with Tom Finney and Denis Law. The term legend is thrown around loosely these days, but so far as Burnley Football Club is concerned, no description is more fitting for Mr. Elder.
Editor?s note: Even though our new full backs Walker and Hartman have blended in ever so well, will the Clarets ever have a better full back pairing than John Angus and Alex Elder? I think not.
