Dave's Clarets v Baggies Match Review.

David Thornley comments on the Clarets relentless quest for an immediate return to the English Premier League.

Over a football season, there are wins and then there are astonishing wins. Burnley’s Friday night victory over West Bromwich Albion most definitely fell into the latter category.

Albion arrived on the back of an impressive run of victories since the appointment of Carlos Corberan as manager, a run which had propelled the Baggies up the Championship table into a position whereby they had become serious play-off contenders.

Burnley’s own unbeaten run of home games feels at times as though it stretches back to the very dawn of civilisation. The truth is the run goes back to the beginning of this season; but let’s not allow the facts get in the way of a perfectly good sound bite of Claret & Blue hued hyperbole.

As Friday’s match unfolded, we were reminded once again as to just why Burnley are so dominant on their home patch.

For a long time, however, it felt as though this was going to be the night when the run would come to an end.

Burnley began the game without two major players in the injured Taylor Harwood-Bellis and the suspended Jack Cork; then they fell behind after six minutes when Albion defender Furlong shoved Charlie Taylor out of the way and headed in a near post corner. It was the first of several dubious refereeing decisions scattered throughout the game.

The Clarets had two penalty shouts turned down in a first half during which they were unable to get out of second gear. The first was an obvious shove, by the dastardly Furlong again, on Josh Brownhill and the second a tumbling Nathan Tella was deemed to have dived, replays seemingly indicated that the ref had called that one right.

In between times, there was a “goal” ruled out for offside, and an Ashley Barnes shot which hit the crossbar. At half time there was a strong feeling that this was going to be one of those nights.

If this season is teaching us Clarets fans anything however, it is to keep the faith. Burnley stepped up their intensity in the second half, they looked more positive and direct and began to exert more pressure on Albion’s defence and midfield.

But that defence held on stoically until the 75th minute, when Annas Zaroury’s Hoddle like first time deft through ball set Tella away down the Burnley right. His first touch wasn’t great, making his angle for a shot more acute than it might have been, but his second touch drilled the ball emphatically into the corner of Albion’s net.

Burnley never looked like losing from then on and it seemed merely a question of whether they could find a winner.

Three minutes from the end of normal time, Josh Cullen was brought down right on the edge of the penalty area. It was a marginal contact and Albion could feel justifiably aggrieved at the award of the free kick. Burnley for their part felt that the offence was inside the area and should have been a penalty.

The free kick was almost dead central, but perhaps too close to goal to allow even a skilled practitioner to get the ball to go over the wall and under the crossbar. It was the sort of position in which the kick usually either cannons off the wall or comes to rest in Row Z.

Scott Twine, however, felt differently. A late substitute for a limping Manuel Benson, he stepped up to the ball and calmly curled it beautifully into the top corner of West Brom’s goal. A marvellous way for the injury-plagued summer signing to introduce himself to the Turf Moor faithful.

Burnley saw out the remainder of the game with a bit of outrageous showboating down by the corner flag, another illustration of the confidence oozing out of this group of Clarets players.

This was a win which further strengthened Burnley’s grip on the Championship table. Sheffield United also won on Friday and the two clubs continue to pull away from a pack who seem to have given up the pursuit and are concentrating instead on contesting the bronze medal and play-off success.

It has also been a week in which Burnley have signed two central defenders; Belgian Ameen Al-Dakhil and Swede Hjalmar Ekdal. With Harwood-Bellis injured and Kevin Long departed, this seems to be an area of the team which required greater resource. Perhaps we will see them in action for the Clarets in next week’s FA Cup tie away to League One Ipswich Town.

Editor’s note: another great piece Dave and it appears that the bountiful recruitment alliance of Vincent Kompany and Alan Pace knows no bounds. South African centre-forward Lyle Foster now looks set to join the Clarets ranks this week. The Burnley Football Club recruitment team do not rest on their laurels, and it appears recruitment for the return to the top tier of English football is now well under way. Up the Clarets! (TEC.)

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