Burnley 0-0 Blackburn Rovers
The FA Cup, Fifth Round
20 February 2005
Turf Moor

Lancashire rivals Burnley and Blackburn Rovers drew 0-0 in a passionate FA Cup Fifth Round match at Turf Moor.

Although it was a keenly-fought contest between the long-standing rivals, the football on offer was not of the highest quality.

Prior to kick-off the game promised to be a classic Cup-tie, with bitterly cold weather, a partizan crowd and a pitch which was a throw back to playing surfaces of days of old but the play never lived up to this billing.

After an initial phase where neither side could string more than a few passes together, it was Premiership Blackburn who managed to grasp the initiative and slowly they started to test their Championship hosts.

However anything Rovers threw at Burnley keeper Brian Jensen were dealt with comortably by the Dane - he did well to cut out a fizzing Brett Emerton cross and then kept out Blackburn's best effort of the first 45 minutes when he dived low to his left to keep out Morten Gamst Pedersen's free-kick.

The second half saw a slight improvement in matters, especially from Steve Cotterill's side, as John Oster's introduction gave them a link between midfield and attack, where Ian Moore was getting all-too easily isolated in his lone striking role.

Despite this, the game still lacked any clear goalscoring chances and any that were carved out, such as one that fell for Paul Dickov, were spurned.

In truth a draw was a fair result of a rather forgettable match. The two will now replay at Ewood Park in what is sure to be another passion-fueled affair.