Burnley 1 Notts County 0 - Tony Dewhurst reports

FOOTBALL managers can be a curious and quirky breed.

They live on a regular diet of adrenaline, fear and trepidation.

Each match could be their last. Cherished hero one minute, victims of a witch hunt the next.

Take Notts County's colourful general manager Colin Murphy.

A boisterous section of County fans were calling for his head at Turf Moor, FIVE months after a trip to a Wembley play-off final!

Murphy's post-match analysis was interesting, to say the least.

Ignoring his own problems at Meadow Lane, he launched a broadside - in Burnley's direction.

I've heard managers calling it Operation Cover-Up!

Highly critical of Burnley's Turf Moor tactics, he reckoned Notts County should have won!

"If we'd set our stall out to play like Burnley did at home then the supporters would have had us hung," he rapped.

"Burnley played with three centre-backs, and three midfield players in between the full-backs.

"That's eight players, really, in their own half. It's a very cautious policy for a home team.

"That would never be my way, at home or away. Right or wrong, we always try to attack people.

"It does, though, appear to be a growing trend in lower division football. Teams think they can win more games by being more cautious." Maybe County should take an immediate lesson out of Burnley's book.

Certainly Murphy's observations seemed a touch churlish from a side already anchored in the bottom four.

Indeed, they NEVER offered enough at Turf Moor to have won this fixture, contrary to what Murphy claimed.

But when you examine the match statistics, it seems that Murphy's comments were little more than an exercise to cover up County's deficiencies.

Burnley had 23 efforts on goal in comparison to County's five. Cautious? I don't think so.

Okay. Burnley have functioned better than this. The first half, in particular, was a disjointed and dour affair.

Yet they fully deserved their success, for their second half performance alone.

As if to make a mockery of Murphy's observations, goalkeeper Darren Ward was the busiest man on the park.

And it was a minor miracle how he kept a clean sheet for an hour.

He worked overtime to keep Burnley at bay with a string of reaction saves.

Burnley's star man David Eyres saw to that, testing the County goalkeeper on several occasions. Just a word about Eyres. Right now he is probably playing some of the finest football of his career.

His role offers Burnley the best of both worlds - wing play and his presence in a defensive, attacking role, when required.

After two indifferent seasons, by his own admission, Eyres is firmly back in the groove.

The left-sided wing-back job suits him down to the ground. Eyres, too, was instrumental in setting up Burnley's winner.

A winding run took him past three defenders to give him the time and space to plan his wizardry. With the target in his sights, Eyres found Kurt Nogan. The striker appeared to run out of space but the ball ran invitingly to Paul Barnes who lashed home his sixth goal of the campaign.

"David was the creator for the goal and that's what we've come to expect from him this season," commented manager Adrian Heath. "When he gets in the final third of the field he's not embarrassed to be there because he's had experience of that role.

"He's set terrific standards. I can't fault his contribution. Nine times out of 10, I believe, he has been our most consistent performer so far."

County, in fact, could never get to grips with Eyres and rarely troubled the Burnley defence.

The back-line saw a Clarets bow for loan signing Doug Hodgson - signed on loan from Sheffield United last week.

And he made a comfortable debut alongside Vince Overson, with Gerry Harrison reverting to a left-sided centre-back position

Harrison never put a foot wrong and again underlined his adaptability to the Burnley squad.

It was the only the bravery of Ward which kept Burnley out before half-time. The industrious figure of Paul Smith - who opened his scoring account at Watford - produced another promising performance.

Twice he saw long-range shots tipped over by Ward, while Damian Matthew, Kurt Nogan and Nigel Gleghorn all went close to adding to the Barnes goal.

There was some sustained County pressure in a late bid to rescue a point, but Burnley deserved their wholehearted win.

And for Notts County? Well, they will just have to learn to be a bit more cautious, I suppose.

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