Burnley 4 Preston 3
In the oldest Lancashire derby Burnley came from two goals down to score three times in six minutes to snatch three points away from North End thanks to a hat trick from Chris Iwelumo and a Jay Rodriguez strike. The game which provided some real tea-time entertainment saw Brian Laws’s side go 1-0 up after ten minutes when the Scotland striker was left unmarked from a corner to head home despite the efforts of Keith Treacy and keeper Andy Lonergan. It was the former Blackburn winger who inspired the response, but it was another bright youngster Adam Barton who levelled the match after Jon Parkin’s knockdown wasn’t dealt with by Clarke Carlisle, leaving the midfielder to place the ball beyond Brian Jensen. There was a hint of a hand but the Preston youth product made no movement towards the ball. Treacy put Preston in front latching onto a second ball, riding a challenge and finishing incisively off the post across the Burnley keeper.
The Clarets, particularly in the first two-thirds of the game, lacked creativity, but switched to a 4-4-2 with the introduction of substitutes Chris Eagles and Jay Rodriguez. Preston capitalised to increased their lead on seventy minutes when Barton found Treacy in space on the wing, who then crossed for Parkin to side foot with aplomb. The match turned on the sending of North End’s full back Billy Jones, yellow carded in the first half for a set to with Wade Elliott. With ten minutes remaining he received his second caution for time wasting and how costly his dismissal proved to be. Burnley began pressing and a creative spark appeared seemingly from nowhere when with a little over five minutes to go Iwelumo grabbed his second with an off-balance strike from inside the area from a lofted ball. With stoppage time in sight he completed his hat-trick by heading in a Graham Alexander free kick. Jay Rodriguez got the winner in the ninetieth minute, Preston having fallen asleep to a short corner, leaving the substitute unmarked in the six yard box to head Ross Wallace’s centre across Lonergan.
The ending to this game will distort the fact that the first half was at time rough and unattractive to watch. It was a case of long ball football from Preston for a good deal of the time. Burnley’s passing game until the sending off was ineffective all build-up and no end product. The match clearly turned on referee Kevin Friend’s decision to send Jones off. Whilst a 4-3 score-line is always an exciting one for the neutral it highlights the defensive frailties of both sides. Laws may not admit it but he has been extremely lucky to have taken three points from this game. It is not difficult to identify who is to blame for the Preston defeat. The price Darren Ferguson had paid for being loyal to a player he worked with at Peterborough and then brought to Deepdale over the summer is a very dear one. Welsh centre half Craig Morgan has never convinced me at this level, even less so as an international footballer. Today he was simply awful. He let Iwelumo go for the first Burnley goal and must also share responsibility for their equaliser with defensive partner and Irish international Sean St Ledger who was at fault for Rodriguez’s winner.
Burnley’s defence was no better. Clarke Carlisle didn’t look too clever gifting young Barton Preston’s leveller in the first half. Andre Bikey played well today, but that unsavoury incident when he was on international duty sticks out in the mind and has made me come to think of him as a professional who is always a little on the edge. Danny Fox’s appalling tackle spelled the end for young Manchester United loanee Josh King and David Edgar may be a utility man but right back is not a position in which he is strong. The Burnley right side that started was tactically wrong, especially when you consider Martin Paterson is not a winger. No wonder Preston had all their joy down that flank. Brian Laws has really got away with it for me tonight. Turning to more positive matters tonight we saw two excellent displays of playing the target man role. Both Parkin of Preston and Iwelumo of the Clarets , when given service, not only posed the opposition defence several problems, but brought their teammates into play as well, having held the ball up or won aerial battles. The Scottish centre forward will grab the headlines but Irishman Treacy really shone for me, providing North End with real quality, something they definitely lacked during the last lacklustre campaign.
On another day fortune might not favour the Turf Moor outfit and despite Preston being on the receiving end again there was enough in tonight’s performance from an attacking perspective to suggest they will be fine. I wouldn’t expect a push for promotion mind, but staying in the division is always preferable to slipping out of it.
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