With the two sides making a combined 19 changes, this cup tie went about as expected.
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Scott Parker on Burnley's cup win against Derby County, Aaron Ramsey and Armando...](https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/scott-parker-on-burnleys-cup-win-against-derby-county-aaron-ramsey-and-armando-broja-debut-5289397 "Scott Parker on Burnley's cup win against Derby County, Aaron Ramsey and Armando Broja debut")
For large parts, it was a stodgy, disjointed affair, the like we normally witness during pre-season when a gaggle of players are put together at the last minute and resemble a bunch of strangers.
In Burnley’s case, their all-change starting XI consisted of debutants, players on the fringes of the first-team and those working their way back from long-term absences, so we shouldn’t be surprised it wasn’t the most fluent of displays.
It started off well enough, with a heart-warming goal in just the fourth minute from Aaron Ramsey, who was making his first Burnley start since February 2024, when he suffered that horror knee injury in a game against Arsenal.
It was a tidy finish too, Josh Brownhill-esque in a way with his late arrival and the manner of his side-footed shot past the goalkeeper’s despairing dive.
Loum Tchaouna, Burnley’s bright spark on his first start, was involved in the build-up, while Armando Broja showed good presence of mind to unselfishly lay the ball off to the onrushing Ramsey, who did the rest.
In terms of a meaningful contribution, that’s as much as we saw from Broja, who looked very rusty and short on match sharpness.
Ramsey gives Burnley the lead with his first goal for the club (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)placeholder image
Ramsey gives Burnley the lead with his first goal for the club (Photo by Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
He wasn’t the only one though. In fact, this second round affair was evidence, if needed, of why Scott Parker tends to be so cautious when bedding in new signings and those players returning from long-term injuries into the first-team picture. There’s one thing being ‘fit’ in training, but doing it in the thrust of a high tempo, full intensity Premier League fixture is a whole different ball game.
Non-event
After grabbing that early opener, you were just waiting for the Clarets to go through the gears and put Derby to the sword. But it never transpired and, by contrast, it was the visitors who slowly, but surely grew into the game before eventually levelling courtesy of a well-crafted goal, finished smartly by Bobby Clark.
Ex-Forest man Joe Worrall, the target of the Derby boo-boys, had started the game brightly with the captain’s armband, but was caught a little flat-footed by Clark as he rounded the centre-back on the edge of the Burnley box, before beating Max Weiss.
The remainder of the game, it has to be said, was something of a non-event – a typical attack-vs-defence affair, the like we’ve already experienced when a John Eustace side rolls into town.
That’s not even a criticism, by the way. He deserves praise for producing well-coached sides that are well-structured and hard to beat, it just doesn’t make for the most entertaining of spectacles, that’s all.
The Rams threatened to cause an upset with one or two breakaways, but it was otherwise a case of Burnley probing for a way through and looking for that one moment of quality.
The game looked to be heading for penalties, but one man – known to the locals as Magic Mike – had other ideas. As the game entered the first minute of stoppage-time, Tresor – making his first Turf Moor outing in 16 months – produced a sublime through-ball for Oliver Sonne to bag a late winner.
Tresor wasn’t the only one to impress off the bench though. Jaydon Banel also brought dynamism, pace, trickery and a willingness to at least take the game to Derby, something the game was otherwise sorely lacking.
But as touched upon earlier, this wasn’t the kind of cup tie we can take any meaningful learnings from. It was a runout, an exercise to hand out some much-needed minutes. In that respect, job done.
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