BLUE SQUARE PREMIER - MONDAY 27th AUGUST 2007

BURTON ALBION

1

FARSLEY CELTIC

0

ATT: 1521

CTMD view: The Brewers made it three wins from the first five games, but this one was not easy. Despite having 20 attempts at the visitors goal, it took a wonder strike from Keith Gilroy to break the deadlock.

The game should have been wrapped up in the first 20 minutes but a combination of poor finishing and good goalkeeping ensured that the score sheet remained balnk at half time.

The visitors had three good chances to score but were twice denied by the woodwork and by an excellent penalty save from Kevin Poole.

Many fans may have been expecting Burton to win by a landslide, but Farsley are no pushovers and will no doubt give some of the top teams a rough ride. Last season Burton were losing games against the so called 'lower' teams and so to win this one shows progress again.

Managers view:

Nigel Clough (Burton) - In an interview on the Burton Albion official website Clough was relieved to have won the game, "Sometimes it's just about getting three points and we did that today. We created enough chances in the first ten minutes, let alone the rest of the match but as has been the case for most of the season so far we looked vulnerable at times as well."

Fans view:

Scott Lee (Farsley) - Probably a fair result, but we weren't half unlucky in the last 20 mins of the first half ; missed penalty and two shots against the woodwork. If any of those had gone in, we probably have got at least a draw.

The penalty was poor, easy height for the keeper and it was nowhere near the corner. The truly gutting moment was when Reeves hit the post. From my angle I thought it was in as soon as it left his foot. I just absolutely could not believe it when it came back off the inside of the post. Truly...shocking...horrible...bad luck.

By contrast, the free kick was never realistically going in. I thought it was going over, and then at the last minute it seemed to dip onto the top of the bar. The keeper looked as though he had it covered.

After all the near misses in the first half, we seemed a bit dispirited second half. We didn't go forward as much and seemed to be settling for a draw, which is fair enough at a team like Burton. I think it was about the 78th minute they scored, just when it looked like we were heading for a good point.

Good to see some spirited Farsley support throughout. The home fans by contrast, given their bigger numbers, looked to me as if they'd either had a rough weekend or just weren't motivated for the game because they expected to win really easily (the 1-5 result at Cambridge probably hadn't gone unnoticed). Only in the last half an hour did they start singing, and even then it was only a small pocket in the corner.