Tindall's tales of the unexpected
10:30am Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in Sport
By Suzanne Geldard, Burnley FC reporter
EXPECT the unexpected, that’s Burnley assistant manager Jason Tindall’s motto for the Championship.
The Clarets were expecting to record a third home win of the season against Millwall. A late offside flag ruling out Junior Stanislas’ third goal was unexpected, and ultimately cost them two points.
Bottom club Peterborough United weren’t expected to end a losing streak at Hull City on Saturday, but came away with three points thanks to Emile Sinclair’s hat-trick.
Sheffield Wednesday would not have anticipated a six-game losing streak after kicking off their post-promotion season with a five-game unbeaten run. But having previously prolonged Posh’s misery, Burnley are again bidding to avoid a backlash tonight, and instead inflict their own wrath on the Owls.
“We were disappointed with the outcome of the result on Saturday. We felt we deserved to win the game,” said Tindall.
“It’s very frustrating because most people left the stadium talking about the referee rather than anything else.
“I felt he missed some really big decisions, there were some very poor decisions that cost us three points.
“It’s a difficult one because you never really seem to get an apology for a mistake or a bad decision.
“It’s hugely frustrating because it was a big turning point in the game. We found ourselves 3-1 up and effectively game over, then all of a sudden it gave them a boost and put us on the back foot a bit.
“If Martin Paterson was offside and the flag goes up straight away there are no complaints, but for it to happen how it happened with the linesman sticking his flag up two minutes later – I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.
“There were two penalties in the first half, probably an argument for three, but there were two handballs. Everyone in the stadium saw them bar the referee. “Football’s got a habit of evening things out so you hope to be on the right end of the decisions soon.”
He added: “This division is all about small margins and the decisions that go for you than against you.
“You can’t take it for granted.
“We say time and again it’s an unforgiving league and no result seems to surprise you in this division.
“Any team is capable of achieving and pulling off a result. “You see some results that are unexpected. You get used to the unexpected in the Championship.
“But with the players we’ve got we are confident among the group that we can get results.
“We are disappointed we didn’t get the three points against Millwall because that’s what we set out to do, but we get another opportunity against Sheffield Wednesday.
“They come here, like Millwall, on the back of a few bad defeats and on a poor run. They had a fantastic start to the campaign though so we know they are a dangerous side, capable of scoring goals.”
But so too is Charlie Austin, who has scored at least once in each of his last four games. The striker is not only topping the scoring charts for his club, but also the country as his 11 goals in all competitions put him ahead of the rest of the attacking pack from the Premier League to League Two.
And Tindall is expecting him to keep the goals coming. “I’m expecting Charlie to score. If you ask the lads they’re probably expecting Charlie to score. I think everyone’s expecting Charlie to score,” he said.
“You’ve only got to look at his record and that will suggest he will very rarely go two games without a goal.
“He’s the top goalscorer in the county, but the lads aren’t surprised by that. He’s a natural goalscorer. He has an unbelievable habit of being able to finish with his head and his feet.
“He missed a few games last year but still ended the season with 17 goals.”
Austin is already well on course to surpass that with less than seven weeks of the season gone. The 23-year-old hit double figures against former club Swindon in the Capital One Cup last week, and made it seven goals in the last four games with an 18-yard header against Millwall, after Ben Mee had scored his first for the Clarets.
However, Tindall is unhappy with the goals against column, with 20 conceded in 11 league and cup games, including a late leveller against the Lions.
“That’s a major source of frustration,” he admitted.
“We’re very disappointed with the goals we’ve conceded but hopefully we will put that right.
"We went through a similar stage last season where we were struggling to keep clean sheets, then we went on a terrific run, and stopped the rot.
"We're confident that will happen, it's just cutting out the little decisions and individual errors that are costing us dearly at the minute.
"Once they are eradicated, then we don't see too much of a problem."
