'Beautiful club': Maxime Esteve on scoring first Burnley goal, Cardiff City win and promotion push

The Frenchman scored on his 53rd appearance for the Clarets on Tuesday night as they edged past the Bluebirds 2-1 in South Wales.

It was a simple enough finish for the 22-year-old, who was able to tap home into the back of an empty net from a couple of yards out after Zian Flemming had headed back across the face of goal.

“It’s goal of the season contender, maybe?,” Esteve joked, while speaking to Clarets+.

“No, I joke. But I’m happy to score my first goal for this beautiful club, so I’m very happy and very proud.”

More importantly, the defender’s goal contributed to a crucial three points that helped Burnley close the gap to the top two back to two points.

The Clarets didn’t have it all their own way though, as they were forced to nervously hold on during the dying stages.

“It was a good first-half, although we conceded the goal at the end of the half,” Esteve explained.

“We started the second-half well and had good opportunities to score and get the third goal, but we didn’t score and they end up having opportunities.

“It was a tough game, it’s a tough place to come, but we come back home with the three points.

“They played well, they’re a good team. In this division there are a lot of games, so we can’t be perfect. But we needed a reaction after Preston [in the FA Cup] and honestly, I’m happy.”

While Esteve was unhappy to lose Burnley’s run of clean sheets, which ends at 12, the centre-back is opting to look at the bigger picture.

“We need to keep the clean sheet, but that’s life,” he added.

“We’ve spoken about this, if we concede a goal it’s not the end of the world. It’s just a goal.

“We come back with the three points and that’s the most important thing, because the gap to Sheffield United is back to two points again.

“We’ve got 11 games left now, so we go forward with this and it will be the same objective against Luton on Saturday: three points.”