[themaclad]

Preston North End 3 Brady, Osmajic, Keane Burnley 0

Attendance: 17,761 (5,646 Burnley fans).

Referee: Mr J Brooks.

Well it was a convincing win against the Clarets apparently beat their B team even though virtually the same team had beaten Southampton away in the last round. First time in the quarter finals since 1966 all that is required now is a home draw.
Decent crowd on a nearly warm spring day. Claret players refused to shake hands with Osmajic after the alleged comments in the last game two weeks ago.
Little to enthuse in the early stages very cagey start, Burnley probably the better, Koleosho caused us problems, but we defended well with the surprise of KKH playing centre back worked a treat, to be honest he ould play between the sticks he is quality.
Took the lead on the half hour, free kick, Brady left foot from 25 yards no problem. They were unlucky not to immediately draw lwvwl Koleosho narrowly across the face of the goal and Woodman also went on a walkabout which nearly cost us.
Two up just before the break, Ledson starting the move by getting hit in the face with the ball, the ball rebounded to Potts who passed behind the Burnley defence and Osmajic buries it 2 nil, celebtrates in front of the away support. Again they coud have scored alost immediately but we just about cleared the danger.
Should have been three almost stright after the restart, quick break KKH buried it into the crowd instead of the net. Substitutes from the Clarets, one of them Flemming nearly reduced the arears good save by Wooman.
Then the third, Thor left footed 60 yards pass, Hughes two touches second into six yard box, Keane applied the finish, glorious goal.
Riis could have made it four but stumbled when trying to take the ball round the keeper, didn't matter one match from the Arch.

HECK

Paul Heckingbottom felt his side put in a “really strong performance” in the 3-0 victory over Burnley in the Emirates FA Cup.

North End were brilliant against their Lancashire rivals at Deepdale in the fifth round tie, with the win earning a spot in the quarter-finals.

The goals came courtesy of Robbie Brady and Milutin Osmajić in the first half, before Will Keane put the icing on the cake in the 73rd minute.


Hecky said: “We’ve played like that in a few games, but maybe drawn as well, so the difference is the goals.

“Robbie set us off with a fantastic goal and Milly, his composure, makes it 2-0. What that does, it means the opposition's got to change. They take more chances, we defended unbelievably well and then we can exploit the gaps at the other end so we could have won by more so it was a really, really strong performance and that's the importance of getting those goals.”

It was a highly-anticipated Lancashire derby given what was at stake, and Brady got PNE going with a stunning left-footed free-kick.

Osmajić made it two before the break and then Keane wrapped things up, tapping home Andrew Hughes’ cross from the left.

On the goals, Hecky said: “Robbie's is a top draw technique, Milly’s is composure but my favourite one is actually the third one, with the pass and the ball across from Hughesy and the fact we’ve got a centre forward in the six-yard box. I keep banging on about all the time.

“Our nines, tens, midfielders, opposite wing-backs, wide men to get in the box and getting those tap-ins, so that was the best goal.”


PNE will find out their quarter-final opponents on Sunday night, with the draw expected to take place at around 6.30pm, following the Manchester United vs Fulham tie.

The Lilywhites have so far had three home matches to get them to the final eight and the manager is hoping for another Deepdale draw.

He said: “For lots of reasons, we want to play here. We’re comfortable here, but when we have got all these games and it's another game to put into the schedule, just logistically it makes so much more sense.

“We're not the biggest of squads. We've got two young lads on the bench for the first time today. It's just common sense. It just protects us physically, less travelling, preparations can be the same, so another reason why I want it home.”

Yes M'Lady

Clarets boss reviews FA Cup defeat at Deepdale

Head Coach Scott Parker said he was ‘disappointed’ with the Emirates FA Cup defeat at Preston North End, but has backed the team to bounce back from a difficult day at Deepdale.

In what was an off-day for the Clarets, it was the first defeat Burnley have suffered since November on a difficult afternoon in Preston.

Luca Koleosho made his return from injury, but the team were unable to deliver a match-winning display in front of 6,000 noisy Burnley fans.

Speaking after the cup tie, Parker admitted the team were not able to get a foothold in the game, after the first goal came from a Robbie Brady free-kick.

“We’re really disappointed today,” he said. “It was a tough tie with tough conditions and with a psychological element to it too but fundamentally we fell short today. It’s not many times I’ve said that this year but today we just fell a little bit short.

“Before the first goal, we’d taken the sting out of the game in an intense environment and I actually thought we started the game pretty well. Then after the goal we weren't really able to get ourselves a foothold and that was where we struggled in large parts trying to chase the game.

“But from that moment, with the emotional state of the game and them having something to hold onto, we couldn’t find anything that could give us a spark today. There was nothing for us to grab onto or give us a bit of a lift and that was disappointing.”


Burnley have a quick turnaround ahead of a visit to Cardiff City on Tuesday night and Parker insists his team would learn from the experience.

He added: “We’re disappointed today. We wanted to do really well in this competition and go through to the next round and we came here with one sole purpose to win the game but we’ve not managed to do that.

“We definitely need to look at that today, on why it was the case and dig a little bit deeper. We have done this throughout this year, we’ve had some blips and our default position is ok let’s learn from it, highlight it and hope that it doesn’t re-occur because we’ve been very good at the basics and platform and today we just fell short.”