GARETH: LIBURD CAN FLY WITH US
GARETH AINSWORTH has pledged to develop Rowan Liburd’s huge potential at Wycombe Wanderers – to show his gratitude to Reading for loaning the striker so cheaply.
The 23-year-old arrived on a one-month loan, making his debut in the 1-0 defeat at Newport County last weekend.
Liburd’s signing came after an ankle injury to Paris Cowan-Hall, just three weeks into his three-month loan, ruled him out for the season.
The Chairboys still have to pay for Cowan-Hall while he is sidelined, meaning there is hardly any room for them to manoeuvre in the loan window, but it appears Reading have done Wycombe a good turn.
“Let’s just say the price was perfect,” Ainsworth said.“We’re still paying for Paris and we’ll honour that.
“We have a great relationship with Reading.We play a similar type of football and we have the link with their Under-21s playing here.
“We never think to take the relationship for granted. What we can’t give in terms of money, we can give in terms of commitment to developing players.
“Rowan has scored or had a hand in a goal every time I’ve seen him play, and coming here he knows he’ll be part of a work ethic that will help his career.”
SEAN Dyche warned the chasing teams that Burnley won’t let up in their chase for promotion after seeing his side move seven points clear at the top.
A strong first-half performance saw the points head to Turf Moor as goals from Stephen Ward, Sam Vokes and Ben Mee punished a Huddersfield side whose inability to defend set-pieces cost them dear.
And with rivals dropping points elsewhere, Dyche was quick to praise the achievements of his sid as they close in on an immediate return to the Premier League.
“The first half in particular was a really strong performance.We were tactically very strong,” he said.
“In the second half it was a good performance in a different way, managing the game out and getting the result.
“We knew Huddersfield had changed their style. The manager is looking to form their own identity with his team and they play out. I felt we dealt with that well and caused them problems.
“We delivered a very strong performance and one that was worthy of the win.
“We want to play on the front foot and we go after every team. We don’t wait for teams. I’ve always felt the best form of defending is attack. We go after teams.
“There are good signs from a lot of my players and I’m really pleased for them.
“I’m happy with the way the team are working. We all know how the team operates and there’s a clarity to how we work.
“We focus on our own game and I focus on being productive. If we can play beautiful football then great. If we have to battle and scrap then we will.
“Some people come up with stats about us not having the ball as much the opposition.We keep putting the ball in their net though.”
Burnley took the lead on 14 minutes when a David Jones corner was headed goalwards by Michael Keane for Ward who cleverly hooked the ball past Jed Steer.
The Clarets doubled the lead on the half hour when Andre Gray held the ball up and released George Boyd who crossed low for Vokes to finish from close range.
The Terriers reduced the arrears when Joe Lolley curled a low shot past the despairing dive of Tom Heaton a minute before the break.
But the visitors restored their twogoal cushion with Mee heading home another Jones corner on the stroke of half time.
The introduction of Harry Bunn and Jamie Paterson in the second half saw the home side improve with Jason Davidson hitting the crossbar from a tight angle and Paterson blasting over when he should have done better.
The damage had already been done though, with Huddersfield manager David Wagner left to reflect on what might have been after the game.
“I don’t know if this was a tactical problem.,”Wagner said.
“The story is very easy. In the first half we were not brave enough.We made simple mistakes defending set pieces. This hurts.
“If you like to beat the best team of the league you have to make the easy things right. Here we didn’t.
“We have to accept the result. But I am glad we did stick to our identity and philosophy. I asked the players to show me that they learnt from the first half and I think in the second half we did it well.We stood on our front foot but we were not clinical enough.
“Here little things didn’t go in our direction.
“If you like to beat the best team of the table you have to use your chances and have to make sure your defence is concentrated and focussed enough.”