Match: Burnley U18 v Preston North End U18
Match day and it was the derby. Burnley away, a huge game against our local rivals and a victory would put us top of the table.
We met at Deepdale at 8.45am and made our way to Burnley on the minibus (The life of footballers isn’t that glamorous!) Thankfully the trip was a lot shorter than the previous away trip to Shrewsbury which was a trek across country and definitely one for the AA route planner!
Once again I was on the bench as the match kicked off in glorious sunshine. Unfortunately our start wasn’t as good as the weather and we were behind after 9 minutes. Ash Higgins then had a goal dubiously disallowed for offside and that could’ve changed the game.
However we went in 1-0 down at half time and Burnley doubled their advantage shortly after the restart when a shot from distance took a wicked deflection off Mike Apsin which left Tommo stranded. Ray Shearwood scored a cracker with his first touch to pull us back into the game at 2-1 and give us a sniff of hope, but with 2 minutes remaining, Burnley made the game safe after a goalmouth scramble.
We could have no complaints about the 3-1 final score, with Burnley (as much as I hate to say it) fully deserving the victory. The first team went down 2-1 later that afternoon away at Ipswich which meant it wasn’t a good weekend for anyone associated with the Lilywhites.
