Burnley 1-1 Blackburn Rovers: Clarets miss golden opportunity to claim derby spoils against 10 men

Scott Parker’s side played for over half an hour with a man advantage but were unable to find a breakthrough against their neighbours.

It came after the Clarets took an early lead through Lyle Foster, only to be pegged back by Andi Weimman’s long-range rocket.

While they were unsettled for a brief spell after losing the lead, the hosts otherwise controlled the game, but were thwarted in their attempts to pick up another derby win after Makhtar Gueye was dismissed for two yellow cards.

It was a breathless, sometimes frantic East Lancashire derby, with nine yellow cards being dished out by referee Tony Harrington.

But Parker will be frustrated not to capitalise and pick up a third win of the season to take into the two-week international break.

Parker handed out debuts to Josh Laurent and Jaidon Anthony as he made five changes to his side from the Sunderland game.

Zian Flemming wasn’t signed in time to be involved, but fellow deadline day arrival Jeremy Sarmiento was named on the bench.

Luca Koleosho was ruled fit enough to start, handing Parker a major fitness boost. Josh Cullen, however, missed out with a knock.

Manuel Benson, strongly linked with a move away during the summer window, was back involved on the bench after failing to seal an exit.

Jordan Beyer, Hannes Delcroix, Hjalmar Ekdal, Aaron Ramsey, Enock Agyei, Mike Tresor and Nathan Redmond all remain sidelined.

As for Rovers, they made three changes from their 2-1 win against Oxford United, as Harry Pickering and Danny Batth both missed out through injury.

With the game kicking off to a cauldron of noise inside Turf Moor, the Clarets almost made the worst possible start.

After just 15 seconds, James Trafford’s poor clearance landed at the feet of Andreas Weimann whose chip missed the Burnley goal by a matter of feet.

The Clarets almost got in behind Blackburn’s backline with their first real attack when Josh Brownhill and Lyle Foster combined well, but the Rovers defence just about managed to snuff out the danger.

Aside from the early mistake, Burnley made a bright start to the game, starting with a good intensity and good closing down.

Hannibal, who was key to that early pressing, teed up Lucas Pires on the edge of the box but the left-back couldn’t quite control his shot.

Burnley got their reward in the 10th minute when they edged their noses in front with a superb team goal.

It all began with Josh Brownhill’s clever backheel to set Jaidon Anthony free, but the debutant still had plenty to do to whip in a cross from the left flank. That’s exactly what he did though and Lyle Foster finished it off with a pinpoint header.

Turf Moor absolutely erupted as Foster wheeled off to celebrate his first goal of the season.

Burnley looked good for their lead and could easily have extended it when Luca Koleosho’s effort took a slight deflection, but Aynsley Pears readjusted himself to get down and make the save.

Midway through the half, Rovers levelled matters with a goal out of absolutely nothing.

The ball fell kindly for Weimann but it was still some effort to lash the ball beyond Trafford and into the top corner from 30 yards out.

Such was the momentum shift, Burnley could easily have gone 2-1 down within five minutes of the equaliser.

Tyrhys Dolan slotted past Trafford after being sent through one-on-one, only to be met by the offside flag. But replays showed the Rovers man was comfortably onside. Saying that, Maxime Esteve was also being blocked off as he attempted to stop the through ball.

While the hosts had clearly been unsettled by the Blackburn goal, they almost restored their lead just after the half-hour mark when Pears failed to deal with Joe Worrall’s header back into his six-yard box.

Instead, it allowed Foster to loop a header towards the Rovers goal but it dropped agonisingly wide of the upright.

Lewis Travis was slightly fortunate to escape with just a yellow for a late, cynical challenge on Foster. Any higher and it would have been a clear red.

Foster continued to be involved right in the thick of the game, coming close to doubling his tally when he glanced a near post header past Pears, only to be denied by the foot of the post.

The first opportunity of the second-half came the way of the visitors as Callum Brittain slashed a volley wide after Joe Worrall could only clear straight to the full-back.

The Clarets owed a big debt to Trafford to keep the scores level when he pulled off a big save to deny Dolan after the visitors had caught them on the break.

In truth, it was a sloppy start to the second-half from the Clarets, with far too many passes being intercepted leaving them vulnerable to the counter.

But the game took another huge twist 10 minutes into the second period when Rovers striker Makhtar Gueye was dismissed for a second yellow.

The striker was ironically fouled by Maxime Esteve, yet was quickly shown a second yellow by the referee after waving an imaginary card, as he appealed for Esteve to face punishment.

Things threatened to boil over at this point as referee Tony Harrington continued to hand out bookings, one a piece for Ryan Hedges and Luca Koleosho.

With a man advantage, Burnley just needed to keep their heads, keep the ball and wear Rovers down. But they faced a dogged rearguard display from the visitors who got plenty of men behind the ball and made life difficult for them.

Parker turned to his bench to switch things up, introducing Jeremy Sarmiento for his debut in place of Hannibal, who was walking a tightrope on a yellow card.

The Clarets upped the pressure as the minutes ticked on, but while they were working the ball into good areas they lacked quality with their end delivery.

With 10 minutes remaining, the crowd were given a big lift when Manuel Benson and Jay Rodriguez entered the fray off the bench.

Try as they might, Burnley just weren’t able to break Blackburn’s resistance and they were forced to settle for a disappointing derby draw.

The game was set up for Benson in the fourth minute of stoppage time when the Clarets were awarded a free-kick on the corner of the 18-yard box, but he failed to hit the target.

Burnley could easily have lost the game in the final moments when they were once again hit on the counter, but thankfully for them Lewis Travis blazed over when well positioned in the box - and that proved to be that.

TEAMS

Burnley: Trafford, Roberts, Worrall, Esteve (Egan-Riley), Pires, Brownhill, Laurent (Rodriguez), Hannibal (Sarmiento), Anthony, Koleosho (Benson), Foster

Subs not used: Hladky, Humphreys, Sambo, Massengo, Hountondji

Blackburn: Pears, Brittain (Duru), Carter, Hyam, Beck, Tronstad, Weimann (Ohashi), Dolan, Hedges (Baker), Gueye

Subs not used: Toth, McFadzean, Buckley, Sigurdsson, Rankin-Costello, Cozier-Duberry

Referee: Tony Harrington