French connection undoes Clarets

EVEN in these import-laden days, you wouldn't expect to be undone by Scunthorpe's French connection.

But the unfashionable east-coast club evidently has the pulling power to attract foreign flair.

And Burnley felt the full force as they lost at home for the first time since Sky Television's last visit to Turf Moor in March.

The improvement since then has put promotion rather than relegation on the agenda.

But Guy Ipoua's second goal of the game six minutes from time ensured Burnley wouldn't reclaim second place in the table and means they have won only once in their last five games.

Although born in Cameroon, Ipoua launched his early career in France before moving to Spain, where he counted Seville among his former clubs, and then Bristol Rovers.

His bizarre career path took him to Scunthorpe earlier this season and he doubled his tally for the club with the goals he and Clinton Marcelle, a Trinidad and Tobago international on loan from Barnsley, had threatened all afternoon with their pace and trickery.

Colourful days indeed for the Iron, with the other thorn in Burnley's side being a Frenchman through-and-through.

Goalkeeper Lionel Perez established his wider reputation with Sunderland but retains all the Gallic charisma of his routes with Bordeaux. Having moved from Wear to Tyne to join Newcastle United, things turned sour for the former Sunderland cult hero.

Never having caught a ball in anger for the Geordies, Perez's last senior game was Sunderland's ill-fated play-off final against Charlton Athletic a year-and-a-half ago.

But his reactions remain razor-sharp and his hat-trick of stunning first-half saves were instrumental in handing Burnley a massively disappointing defeat.

Inevitably Andy Payton was the one man able to beat Perez with a neat second-half header to make it 1-1.

But despite some sustained periods of attacking, Burnley were unable to find another way past Scunthorpe's inspired loan signing.

And with the Clarets defence being asked questions to which they had no answers, they were always susceptible to conceding on the break.

It must have made entertaining viewing for the neutral but that will be of little consolation to Burnley who have taken just one point from back-to-back home games and now need to re-establish their promotion credentials on the road at Millwall and Cambridge.

They will take some solace from the fact that, but for Perez, their attacking display might have brought greater reward.

But Payton clearly needs some help in the goal-scoring stakes from other departments of the team - despite an excellent first 45 minutes from Graham Branch - and a previously resolute defence can't afford to be so generous to strikers from open play or set-pieces.

It was a matter of when rather than if Burnley would score early on with Glen Little carving his way through the visitors' ranks and Payton and Branch stretching them up the middle. However, that was reckoning without Perez who acrobatically kept out a Steve Davis header with Chris Hope completing the clearance off the goalline.

And after Andy Dawson had conceded a free-kick for a trip on the elusive Payton that surprisingly didn't even warrant a yellow card, Perez stood firm again with a sharp save to his right-hand side to keep out Paul Cook's thunderbolt.

Cook's accurate delivery was one of Burnley's major weapons and when he put a corner on Gordon Armstrong's head, the skipper wasted a chance by directing his header over the top.

And Burnley were stunned two minutes later when Ipoua gave Scunthorpe the lead.

Marcelle, who dropped deep to cause Burnley and Mitchell Thomas problems, flicked on Richard Logan's long ball and Ipoua was given the room to fire first-time past Paul Crichton from 22 yards.

The Scunthorpe pair linked well again to almost embarrass Crichton who had to palm the ball away from Lee Hodges following Marcelle's weak shot.

But Burnley were still doing most of the pressing and Perez's best save of the match, low to his right, prevented Payton from heading the equaliser.

Stan Ternent threw on John Mullin at half-time to add an extra cutting edge to the Burnley midfield and on a couple of occasions Perez's former Sunderland team-mate almost produced the goods.

But after Armstrong had found more space to get in a header which missed the target, it was Payton who levelled with his eighth goal of the season. Again Cook was the architect with a wonderful ball in from a free-kick which Payton met perfectly with a glancing header that for once left Perez rooted to the spot.

With half-an-hour to go, you might have expected Burnley to go on and beat a side struggling to stay out of the bottom four.

But that's been without Perez and Marcelle and as the Clarets became rather frantic, the latter missed a great chance when rounding Crichton and rolling the ball across an open goal.

Crichton then saved well from the unmarked Ipoua but Burnley couldn't make the most of the reprieve and they were sunk by Ipoua's direct running.

Exposing the Clarets defence for a final time, the Iron front man forced them onto the back foot and got close enough to goal for his mis-hit shot to loop over Crichton and in for the winner.

As happy endings go, Paul Weller conjuring up an equaliser would have taken some beating. And the midfielder, given a rapturous welcome after a year out through illness, couldn't have done much more than create a couple of openings for Andy Cooke, neither of which he could take to limit the damage.

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