Talisman Blake is the real deal

JOE Kinnear must be sadly deluded in thinking he could lure Robbie Blake away from Burnley on the cheap.

And the talismanic striker once again underlined his importance to Burnley by scoring a seaside special and sending Kinnear a clear signal that he still has unfinished business at Turf Moor.

Nottingham Forest's audacious two-for-one swap deal for Blake was clearly dangled in front of Steve Cotterill to play on the fact that the Burnley boss needs more bodies.

But Kinnear clearly overlooked one crucial factor, namely that Blake possesses more ability in his two feet than Forest can offer Cotterill in four.

His goals alone are worth their weight in gold, and not for the first time a sublime poacher's strike turned what could have been one point into three.

But however Cotterill sends out his side, Blake's overall contribution remains invaluable to the masterplan.

Who else in this division can frequently occupy an entire defence, effortlessly hold the ball up, constantly link up play and also come up with 20 goals a season?

As he battles to drag Forest out of relegation trouble, Kinnear certainly has no-one in that mould - so where the hell is he going to find two?

Blake therefore chose the perfect moment to take his tally for the season into double figures and land Cotterill's Clarets a richly deserved three points and their first victory at Brighton in 32 years.

The only person inside the Withdean Stadium who thought otherwise was Seagulls boss Mark McGhee, who kept a straight face in claiming his side "annihilated" Burnley in the opening half hour.

But back on planet earth, the facts show the early assault amounted to little more than a header onto the roof of the net, a deflected shot that Brian Jensen instinctively parried for a corner and a half-chance that flew into the side netting.

McGhee's comments were more total fiction than total football as Burnley weathered that opening salvo and took control of the game.

Much of that was down to Cotterill's tactical acumen - another area in which Burnley came out on top.

The Clarets chief initially tried to outfox his opposite number by restoring Ian Moore to the attack and playing a traditional 4-4-2.

McGhee had opted for 4-5-1 from the off, believing he had to match the five men he expected to be strung across the Clarets midfield.

For a short while, McGhee gained the upper hand as his full backs found space they did not expect and utilised it to keep the visitors pegged back.

Evergreen striker Steve Claridge, still a class act at 38, flicked his header over Jensen and inches over the bar and then Charlie Oatway's driven shot cannoned off Frank Sinclair for the alert Jensen to make his only genuine save of note all afternoon.

From the resulting corner, Leon Knight then volleyed into the side netting with Jensen scrambling across goal.

However, within 15 minutes, Cotterill wrestled back the initiative by dropping Moore back onto the left, spreading his own midfield and nullifying the growing threat.

And from that moment, the whole emphasis of the game changed. Suddenly, Brighton were back-pedalling and quite how they reached half-time level is anyone's guess.

Tony Grant's floated 21st minute corner sought out Graham Branch, whose backward header looped over stranded keeper Michel Kuipers and smacked the crossbar before bouncing to safety.

Moore then tried his luck from the tightest of angles and forced Kuipers to paw the ball for a corner.

And from the resulting short corner Blake's whipped cross was met by Mo Camara, whose header hit the foot of the post and cannoned out.

Just after the half hour, Burnley came even closer as Moore met another Grant corner with a firm header.

The ball appeared to strike Paul Reid's hand on the goalline, but as Burnley players appealed for a penalty, Moore followed up with a point-blank shot that somehow hit Reid and sailed over the crossbar.

Cotterill has been repeating the mantra that the Clarets learn to be ruthless and an impressive army of travelling fans, who braved the sleet in a makeshift stand with no roof, could be forgiven for sensing punishment would follow.

But that began to look highly unlikely as Claridge became even more isolated up front through Burnley's constant pressing.

Blake might have teed-up Lee Roche for an easy tap in as half time approached, but shot instead and Kuipers gratefully held on.

And as the second half followed the same pattern, so the breakthrough became almost inevitable.

The industrious James O'Connor saw his shot blocked at the last moment as he homed in on goal and then he, Moore and Graham Branch all somehow missed Blake's magnificent cross.

So it was left for the skipper himself to come up with the crucial goal that always looked like being enough.

Seventy minutes were on the clock when, you've guessed it, a Tony Grant corner was only half cleared and Camara challenged Kuipers in the air.

The Dutchman fluffed his attempted punch and when O'Connor turned the loose ball back into the six-yard box, there was Blake to gleefully rifle the ball high into the top corner.

There was one last scare for Burnley as Jensen allowed Darren Currie's harmless cross to slip through his grasp and bounce thankfully just past the far post and the unmarked Nathan Jones.

But Blake had been making the news in the run-up to the game, so it was inevitable he would end the week still on top.