Burnley Reserves 1 Tranmere Rovers Reserves 1

TOM Cowan made an impressive return to action as Burnley and Tranmere fought out an exciting 1-1 draw at Turf Moor last night.

Cowan, who has been out of action for two weeks with a hamstring injury, played a full 90 minutes and had a hand in the Clarets equaliser as he bids to force his way back into manager Stan Ternent's first team plans.

It was the Merseysiders who enjoyed the better of the first half and Burnley survived an early scare when a close-range header came back off the bar.

The visitors took the lead after 30 minutes when Scott Taylor outpaced Gordon Armstrong and fired past Mawson. But the Clarets rallied and Alan Lee and Anthony Shandran both missed opportunities before the break.

Burnley upped the tempo in the second half and they finally got their reward with half an hour remaining. Cowan driiled a delightful cross-field ball to Paul Weller who teed up Micky Mellon on the edge of the box and the midfield man lashed an unstoppable drive into the top right hand corner.

Burnley: Mawson, Robertson, Cowan, Mellon, Brass, Armstrong, Weller, Jepson (Kelly), Lee, Shandran, Branch. Subs not used: Williamson, Paxton, Devenny, Bowden

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.