Waiting game: Clarets remain on the brink

IN A season that has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, Burnley are still keeping us waiting before deciding their fate.

A seventh successive unbeaten game confirmed the impression that has been gathering momentum since a disastrous Ides of March that the Clarets will be playing Second Division football at the start of the new millennium.

But the inability to finally crack an unambitious Bournemouth side allied to results elsewhere means that Burnley still have work to do to maintain or extend their safety margin above the relegation zone which was reduced to three points on Saturday.

With four games left the Clarets are likely to need at least one more win.

They should get it but it would have been nice to have eased the tension by converting pressure into goals against a Bournemouth side that looked happy to consolidate their play-off position after suffering three defeats in their last four games.

It was a testimony to Burnley's recent improvement that if a neutral had dropped into Turf Moor and been asked to choose which team was chasing promotion and which one was scrambling to beat the drop he may well have got the sides confused. But at a stage of the season when the importance of the result outweighs the performance it must have been frustrating for Burnley to gain as much reward for their afternoon's work as the Cherries, who didn't muster a single serious goal attempt.

The hosts were made to wait for the majority of theirs but they created enough in the second half to have won the game and chances don't come any better than the one missed by Steve Davis 10 minutes after the break.

Davis had planted a sumptuous 25-yarder against the crossbar early on but when only six yards from goal the Clarets defender wasn't able to hit the target as he lifted Andy Cooke's driven cross over the top of the gaping target.

Without the cutting edge of injured leading scorer Andy Payton, Burnley couldn't make amends, despite a late onslaught.

Whether Payton's nose for goal would have made any difference is an academic question.

But those that tried to make up for his absence gave it a go. Also without the suspended Glen Little, manager Stan Ternent recalled Graham Branch to his starting line-up.

Not a natural striker, Branch looked happier when playing wider after the introduction of Ronnie Jepson on the hour mark and his thrusting runs down the left unhinged the Bournemouth defence. Jepson's flicks and lay-offs brought an extra dimension to the Clarets approach play and added greatly to the threat.

And with Andy Cooke hammering away all afternoon Burnley looked the more likely of the two sides to break the stalemate.

Bournemouth were a shadow of the side that had run Burnley ragged on the south coast in November.

They were well disciplined and very neat on the ball but the free spirit they had displayed in that 5-0 thumping was kept largely bottled up.

Avoiding defeat was their main priority and hats off to them for achieving it. But any hopes they had of a smash-and-grab raid were nullified by another excellent defensive display by Gordon Armstrong and his troops. Mark Stein must have been surprised not to find Chris Brass sat beside him on the team coach going home, given the close attention he received from Burnley's ace man-marker who didn't give the former Chelsea goal-scorer a sniff.

Having survived the early scare from Davis's majestic sortie forward and an impressive start from Burnley, in which Paul Cook and wing-backs Ally Pickering and Tom Cowan were heavily involved, Bournemouth did play their way back into the game as Ian Cox was allowed to carry the attack from the back.

But apart from some dangerous runs by Christer Warren down the left, the Cherries played most of their football in front of Burnley's back line.

Clear sights of goal were few and far between but it took an excellent interception some 40 yards from goal by Bournemouth keeper Mark Ovendale to deny the quick-breaking Branch.

A lack of match sharpness seemed to be taking its toll on Branch before the break. But he was revitalised after half-time and was close to putting the Clarets in front when sliding a shot into the side netting after Micky Mellon's delightful through-ball had released Cooke. The impressive Cooke also created the opening from which Davis should have won the match before a further excellent run and cross from Branch ended with Pickering drilling a low drive at Ovendale.

With Jepson galvanising the front line, the Clarets stepped up the pace in search of a late winner and bombarded the Bournemouth box.

But their final opportunity came and went when the visitors were for once caught short at the back eight minutess from the end.

Cowan led the counter-attack before feeding Branch, who instead of staying wide and squaring the ball for Jepson or Cooke took the option of cutting inside.

It looked a reasonable choice as the route to goal opened up but his finish let him down as Branch stroked the ball wide of the target.

One chance gone, but there will be more to come in the last four games as Burnley's future remains solely in their own hands.

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