Burnley Wade into Charlton's slump

13 April 2012

Wade Elliott struck spectacularly to put Burnley ahead and inflict another blow to Charlton on a night of wild weather at Turf Moor.

Both teams were hoping to make up for the disappointments of last week.

Both got only a point from two games each, seriously damaging Charlton's hopes of an automatic place and hitting Burnley's play-off chances.

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Burnley's Cole battles Sodje.

The home fans let their former striker Andy Gray know how they feel about him, booing his name before the game and his every touch of the ball throughout it.

The Scotland international is still their top scorer with the 13 goals he scored before his departure for Charlton in a £1.5million deal in the January transfer window.

He was still waiting for No 14 on his return to Turf Moor, having fired blanks in 17 outings, nine of them for his new club.

There was little sign of it coming as his team were pushed back for much of the first half.

His partner Leroy Lita, making his second appearance since joining on loan from Reading, came close to opening his Charlton account after 19 minutes when he just failed to make contact in a promising situation in front of goal.

That was just a minute after Charlton's first serious scoring attempt when Jerome Thomas moved menacingly in from the left before firing over.

Burnley had earlier threatened when James O'Connor headed over from a Robbie Blake cross after two minutes.

They forced Patrick McCarthy to dive in front of Andy Cole to head over his own bar from another Blake cross after 17 minutes.

Holland tackles Burnley's O'Connor

Charlton managed to mount more attacks as the half wore on and, after 33 minutes, Darren Ambrose forced Gabor Kiraly into a diving save to keep out his long, low drive.

Gray had his first real chance three minutes into the second half, but to the delight of the jeering home fans, he was much too high with his header when Lita found him in a dangerous position.

Two minutes later he threatened again but, as he was about to shoot while running into the penalty area, Burnley defender Graham Alexander denied him by getting a touch to put the ball behind.

From the corner, Sam Sodje had a chance but sent his header down and wide.

Conditions were difficult with the wind blowing fiercely and swirling and the rain was torrential at times.

But, to their credit, the players tried to play attractive football and, after 59 minutes, Elliott produced a real minute of quality to break the deadlock.

He moved in from his beat wide on the right to take a pass from Blake and from 25 yards shot with his left foot to beat Nicky Weaver, who never had a chance of saving.

It was Elliott's first goal of the season.

His delighted boss Owen Coyle said: "He was wearing new boots and told me, 'There's goals in these boots'."

Coyle reckons the top four in the division will remain in those positions, leaving seven or eight to go for the other two play-off places.

Coyle said: "If Charlton had beaten us, we would have been seven points behind them. This win puts us right in it again."

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