Blake artistry gives Burnley a vision of the future

Burnley 3 Gillingham 1

Had Burnley played as well throughout the season as they did yesterday in outclassing Gillingham, they would surely be significantly further up the First Division table than the 19th place they occupy.

Last season's quarter-finalists evidently excel in the FA Cup and duly demolished the team who stand above them in the League but who were fortunate only to concede three times. Two goals from leading scorer Robbie Blake added to Ian Moore's opener gave them an unassailable advantage with a quarter of the game remaining. But Burnley should have doubled that total as chance after chance came and went.

Despite being banished to the stands at half-time after an altercation with referee Graham Laws, Stan Ternent, the Burnley manager, was delighted with his team.

"All I asked the referee was a civil question about why he hadn't booked Hills," he said. "I tried to speak to him at the end but he wouldn't see me. I don't know why.

"It was a scrappy start but once we were in front we played well and scored three good goals."

Arsenal and Middlesbrough's paths may currently be intertwined in a higher- profile succession of matches, but these two teams are also particularly familiar with each other. Both were promoted to the First Division in 2000 and lie side-by-side in the lower reaches of that League.

A week on Saturday, for Burnley's next home game, Gillingham will return to Lancashire - a trip they cannot be relishing - so it was perhaps understandable that yesterday's game lacked the one-off feel of a traditional Cup tie.

Burnley had initially struggled to puncture Gillingham's no-nonsense defence. Thankfully, just as the game had begun to deteriorate, Cup specialist Ian Moore opened the scoring. The striker met Mo Camara's well-flighted cross with a firm header for his 10th goal in 12 FA Cup appearances for Burnley.

"I don't know what it is with him and the Cup but I thought he was on fire," said Ternent.

A minute later and their lead was doubled. Gillingham were apparently pursuing a vendetta on the home winger Glen Little and, after Alan Pouton had become the latest to hack him down, Blake curled the resulting free-kick around the wall and off the near post. With the game slipping away, Gillingham resorted to some crude challenges but the home side wisely concentrated on the football. "It all went wrong in a couple of minutes and it was always going to be hard after that," said Andy Hessenthaler, the Gillingham player-manager.

Burnley's bright play deserved a third goal and it arrived courtesy of Blake, who swept home Ian Moore's slow cross midway through the second half. Gillingham managed a scrappy consolation when Brian Jensen spilled Kevin James's cross and Darius Henderson bundled the loose ball in from close range.

Burnley 3
Moore 30, Blake 33, 64

Gillingham 1
Henderson 71

Half-time: 2-0 Attendance: 9,735