Burnley 1

Gillingham 1

Asaba 66mins

ANDY Hessenthaler may be new to the management game but he's had a good teacher and this result could have been Taylor-made for Burnley's bogey side.

Peter Taylor, Hessenthaler's predecessor in the Gills' hot-seat, raided Turf Moor for three points in April when he played a lone striker and was gifted the all-important opening goal.

Different leader but same outcome yesterday, as Carl Asaba punished some sloppy defending to give Gillingham a 66th-minute advantage.

At the height of the promotion battle there was no way back for the Clarets as they slumped to an apparently costly defeat.

But this time Burnley did have Glen Little in their ranks and, within four minutes, the Clarets' ace-in-the pack, suspended for the previous meeting, unleashed a typically penetrative run and wicked cross which Barry Ashby could only slide into his own net.

"I'm reasonably happy because of the last two times Gillingham have been here. Once was in the bad old days and last year they did the exact same thing.

"We gave a bad goal away and we lost that match, so it's an improvement," declared Burnley boss Stan Ternent. Gillingham have made defending in numbers an art form and it can be near fatal to fall behind when they are in this miserly mood.

Dean West was the unfortunate fall-guy last time and, on this occasion, it was a rare error by Mitchell Thomas that opened the way for Gillingham's battle plan to fall into place.

Since Thomas joined Burnley you can count his mistakes on one finger, let alone one hand, but after failing to clear a hopeful Junior Lewis ball into the box he allowed Asaba to turn and drive a low shot through the legs of an exposed Paul Crichton.

It was a hammer blow for Burnley and also a cruel one for Ian Cox, who did an excellent job in marshalling the dangerous Gills' striker.

"He's a good player. He's very direct, gets the ball, turns and runs at you," said Cox.

"I just had to try and match him and hopefully I did that over the course of the game.

"It's never going to be easy because you never know what he's going to pull out.

"It wasn't too bad but he got on the scoresheet which made it a bit disappointing from my side of things."

The goal came against the run of play and at least Burnley had enough about them to hit back and rescue a point.

At their best they might have expected all three but it took the 51st-minute introduction of Andy Payton, John Mullin and Graham Branch to inject some life into a lacklustre performance. "I thought we looked a bit leggy with three matches in four days so early in the season," Ternent admitted.

"I just wanted to try and freshen things up a little bit and it had the desired effect. We had some chances and we did enough really to win the game, although it wasn't a great match from a spectators' point of view because it takes two to tango and obviously Gillingham didn't want to tango."

For a while the visitors were led a merry dance as the three substitutes, aided by Little, managed to punch holes in a hitherto watertight defence.

However, the all-important first goal wouldn't go Burnley's way as Branch failed to profit from good work by Payton.

From a tight angle, Branch couldn't squeeze the ball over the line to claim the only thing that's missing from his increasingly productive armoury.

Disaster then seemingly struck at the other end but Burnley are nothing if not fighters and the momentum swung back their way thanks to Little's brilliance and Ashby's bad luck.

Gillingham had their moments on the break with Nyron Nosworthy failing to connect from an inviting chance laid on by Nicky Southall.

But the visitors were happy to revert to plan A and safeguard their point by working overtime to keep Branch and Payton at bay.

Andy Cooke and Phil Gray were probably cursing their luck back on the bench with the game opening out thanks in no small part to the ability of Mullin and Little to go past their man.

However, Payton and Branch deserve credit for making things happen and Branch claimed a penalty when he drove a shot against Nosworthy.

Little's follow up was deflected over and Guy Butters also charged down a Steve Davis effort as Burnley pressed for the maximum reward late on.

The eventful end was in stark contrast to a desperate first 45 minutes in which both sides appeared to have forgotten they had been promoted.

Burnley lacked the guile or quality on the ball to break through. But their improvement after the break was an encouraging sign for the battles to come -- even if a one-point weekend haul was the least they would have hoped for.