Burnley Score Critical Home Victory
Burnley ended a run of ten league games without a win with a vital home victory against Brentford as the Vertu Motors-backed side was given a double boost in its fight against relegation from the Premier League.
Burnley had last won in the in the final league game before Christmas – a 2-0 win against Fulham – and hadn’t picked up three points at Turf Moor since the 5-0 demolition of Sheffield United earlier in December.
In the final game before the international break, manager Vincent Kompany rolled the dice by bringing in Arijanet Muric for James Trafford in goal, with the England youngster dropped for the first time this season.
Burnley started brightly and were given a huge boost just eight minutes in when Sergio Reguilon felled Vitinho in the box, with a penalty awarded after a VAR check and Reguilon shown a red card.
Jacob Bruun Larsen duly smashed the ball beyond the dive of Mark Flekken to give the home side the lead before Muric was forced to clear a wayward backpass from the line to keep the Clarets ahead – with Dara O’Shea within inches of putting the ball into his own net.
Muric also denied Ivan Toney from the resultant rebound before Burnley suffered one of the misses of the season at the other end.
Lorenz Assignon skipped past his man on the right hand side and delivered a fine cross into the box, finding David Datro Fofano unmarked in the middle but he somehow contrived to miss an open goal to leave the lead at one going into the second half. – albeit only after another fine stop from Muric to deny Yoane Wissa.
A spell of end-to-end football just before the hour mark ended with Fofana making amends for his earlier miss when he clipped a smart finish beyond Flekken to double Burnley’s advantage.
Muric saved brilliantly to deny Toney but seconds later, Kristoffer Ajer headed past the Bosnian to halve the deficit and give Brentford hope.
The visitors through they had grabbed an equaliser in injury time when a cross from Shandon Baptiste dropped into the far corner but his effort was ruled out for a foul by Toney on the ‘keeper.
The three vital points should have moved Burnley to within eight points of safety but a points deduction for Nottingham Forest for a financial breach means the gap is instead down to five.
Next up for Burnley on the pitch is a trip to Chelsea on 30 March.
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