Burnley-Liverpool Postponed

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The match which is supposed to be kicking off now on Sportsnet has been postponed:( until Tuesday the 18th. Hopefully SN will still broadcast it.

Burnley versus Liverpool FA Cup tie postponed

LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The weekend's first match in the FA Cup third round between Burnley and Liverpoool at Turf Moor on Friday has been postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.

The game was due to kick off at 1945 GMT but after torrential rain in Lancashire referee Mark Clattenburg was forced to postpone the tie despite the hard work of the Burnley groundstaff to remove surface water from the pitch.

First division Burnley will now host Premier League Liverpool on Tuesday January 18, the FA said on its website.

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Cotterill puts brain before rain

David Hopps

Friday January 7, 2005

The Guardian

The departure of Robbie Blake is a subject that has been off limits for Burnley's ambitious young manager Steve Cotterill ever since his star striker decided that a move to the Premiership with Birmingham City was irresistible.

But then there were a few touchy subjects yesterday as Cotterill plotted Liverpool's downfall in tonight's third-round tie at Turf Moor. With Blake officially persona non grata, it was not even the time to adopt that old English fail-safe and talk about the weather.

While much of England awaited the snow that never came, Burnley had one First Division match over Christmas and New Year postponed because of ice and another abandoned because of floods. Today's forecast over the Pennines is for gale-force winds and driving rain. If this tie survives, it might not be a pretty sight.

Neither has it been easy for Burnley FC's caterers, who are worth mentioning if only for their wonderful motto: "More than just pies." Straight out of Phoenix Nights, that one. {}

Cotterill does not relish the rain. For one thing Burnley's cash flow can hardly survive another cancellation; they have risked local wrath by returning only half the money for the abandonment against Leicester - and it lasted just 19 minutes. And tonight Sky TV are in town, their largesse helping to pay the wages for the loan players, such as Aston Villa's defender Gary Cahill, who have helped to stabilise Burnley's season.

Equally, as a dutiful student of Howard Wilkinson, first at the Football Association and later in a strikingly unsuccessful partnership at Sunderland, Cotterill would prefer to outwit Liverpool with some subtle tactical masterstroke, a moment that would confirm his stature as one of the bright young things in the lower divisions.

He is not the sort to dream of a night of sand-laden goalmouths and a freakish winner blown in while Liverpool's keeper is blinded by a rain-laden wind. His magic of the Cup involves careful planning, not once-in-a-lifetime flukes.

"I don't want to talk about the weather," he said. "We had two games cancelled over Christmas, which we didn't need, and we don't want a mudbath against Liverpool. The FA Cup's mudbath days have gone. The best players are cleverer now. They can still flick a ball up and volley it 40 yards, whereas maybe my boys can't."

The theory that muddy pitches are no longer great levellers but allow greatness to flourish sounded invitingly alternative but, whereas Wilkinson could turn a simple subject such as trapping the ball into a treatise on penal colonies in Australia, Cotterill rarely has such flights of fancy.

For Burnley fans he is straightforward and knowledgeable, a manager who took over a club with only seven professionals, brought in solid performers like the defender John McGreal, keeper Danny Coyne and midfielder Micah Hyde, and planted Burnley unexpectedly in mid-table.

For some Stoke supporters, he will forever be a Judas, reviled for leaving for Sunderland. Cotterill found it a traumatic time, although more because of the death of his mother than Sunderland's predictable relegation. He took a long time outafter his sacking and reportedly refused half-a-dozen jobs before moving to Burnley via a brief coaching stint at Leicester.

Aston Villa have already been dumped out of the Carling Cup this season but Burnley are down to the bare bones against Liverpool. Blake has gone and Jean-Louis Valois, a French winger, is injured.

Of the pitch Cotterill said; "The gale-force winds might help to dry it, though that will be no good if a bloody great black cloud blows over. The subs will be warming up in dinghies." Then he stopped, fearing he was beginning to sound like John Kettley.