Laws: I wouldn't have called for Man City abandonment
SHELL-SHOCKED Burnley manager Brian Laws urged match officials NOT to abandon Saturday’s game, even though a waterlogged pitch would have been their only way of avoiding a 6-1 thrashing by Manchester City.
The scoreline was 5-0 when Turf Moor was hit by a deluge and surface water covered most areas of the pitch when the teams emerged for the second half.
But Laws told fourth official Kevin Friend that the match must be completed, despite the conditions, because an abandonment at that stage would have “embarrassing”.
“I said to the fourth official that there was no way it could be called off. I wouldn’t accept that because the game was effectively over anyway,” he said.
“I couldn’t use the pitch as an excuse and lay blame on that.
“That would have been embarrasing for that to happen.”
The Clarets had been condemned to their third home defeat on the spin after shipping three goals in the opening six-and-a-half minutes, leaving their gameplan to take the game to Champions League-chasing City in tatters.
“We were being positive, that was the dumbfounding thing,” said Laws. “The fact that we were going out there with a positive team to go and attack Manchester City, at home with a fantastic crowd behind us, and at the end of it I’m having to apologise to the supporters for it. An awful display of defending in that first six minutes has effectively killed the game.
“The team we picked was an attack-minded team but you can’t neglect your defensive duties.”
And Laws has vowed to ring the changes for next week’s crunch game at third-bottom Hull.
“The one thing it has taught me is that we cannot play with two midfielders because we are not good enough,” he said.
“We tried to release the shackles because we have been defending in numbers for 10 games and effectively staying in games without conceding too many goals.
“Manchester City tore us apart in that first six minutes and that showed me we can’t play with two in there against any team in the Premier League because we are not good enough to do it.”
News of Hull’s defeat at Stoke, before Burnley’s late kick-off, had provided a pre-match boost. But Laws rued another opportunity missed to close the gap at the bottom.
“That performance didn’t embrace the results because it was another opportunity to get close to the teams around us,” said the former Sheffield Wednesday boss.
“We knew we were going to have a tough game against Manchester City because they’ve got an objective themselves to get fourth spot.
“You’ve seen them go away from home and beat Chelsea.
“They’ve got real quality through the side.
“The fact that a game was over, effectively, after six minutes is difficult to swallow and to accept. But we’ll be ready for the next game.”
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