Opinion: Burnley miss golden opportunity to make things interesting during pulsating West Ham affair

After a largely dull, but ultimately successful first-half from Burnley’s point of view, this Sunday clash at the London Stadium turned out to be a rip-roaring affair of twists, turns, drama and mixed emotions come the final whistle.

Ultimately what Burnley need is wins, draws simply won’t cut the mustard. But in any other circumstances a draw away to West Ham would be lauded as a good result. After losing four on the bounce, the Clarets had to stop the rot somewhere.

But after boasting a two-goal lead, Vincent Kompany’s men had to find a way to hold on.

Letting slip

They certainly tried, they defended resolutely and dug in. There was plenty of ‘game management’ too, much to West Ham’s frustration.

But there can be no excusing conceding within 30 seconds of the restart, especially in such horrid circumstances.

Once the Hammers got that goal back through Lucas Paqueta, you feared the worst. But Burnley did well and looked like they might, just might, grind out a much-needed victory – only their fourth of the season and their first since December 23.

But the last 10 to 15 minutes, of which I include the eight minutes of stoppage time, were quite simply chaos. It’s impossible to make any sense of it.

Danny Ings thought he had levelled at the death, only to be denied by the tightest of VAR offside calls. A minute later, the former Claret scored for a second time and on this occasion, there was no VAR to come to Burnley’s aid (but still, it was nice for one of those calls to go in Burnley’s favour for once, wasn’t it?).

The drama didn’t end there though, there was still plenty of goalmouth action to follow with both sides throwing caution to the wind in search of a last-gasp winner.

Michail Antonio dragged a shot inches wide for the hosts, but the two biggest chances fell Burnley’s way, with Sander Berge firing over from a promising position and Josh Brownhill seeing a close-range shot blocked with literally the last kick of the game. It was simply breathless stuff and Burnley more than played their part.

If only

This was certainly a missed opportunity for the Clarets though. Had they held on, the gap to safety would now be eight points, rather than 10. With Nottingham Forest facing a potential points deduction, the picture down at the wrong end of the table could have looked a whole lot different.

West Ham were there for the taking, too. This was your typical sleepy Sunday encounter, where the Hammers were clearly suffering a hangover from their Thursday night travels to Freiburg in the Europa League.

That’s not to take anything from Burnley, who were much improved in terms of their overall performance, just as they were against Bournemouth last week. But the reality is the circumstances were in Burnley’s favour and they failed to take full advantage of it.

I’m sure most would have taken a point beforehand. Europa League game or not, West Ham are a good side packed full of exciting talent. There’s a reason why they remain seventh in the table.

On the balance of play, David Moyes can make a good argument that his side deserved to win too. With an Expected Goals (xG) of 1.82 to Burnley’s 0.65 (which seems a little low, it has to be said), they certainly had the clearer-cut chances.

But the visitors were deservedly in control of this encounter at the break thanks to two goals. One brilliant, one involving some good fortune.

That said, their second, an own goal from Konstantinos Mavropanos, also involved some clever build-up play involving Berge, Jacob Bruun Larsen and ultimately Josh Cullen, whose low cross was diverted past the hapless Alphonse Areola.

Burnley’s opener though, was exquisite. David Fofana, who was Burnley’s standout performer regardless of his worldie of a goal, lashed it home from 25 yards after engineering some space for himself in the centre of the pitch with a clever little shuffle between two West Ham men.

Either side of the goal, the Chelsea loanee led the line superbly, putting himself about and fighting for every loose ball. Cullen and Berge were the other two standouts.

Setting the standard

Leading by two at half-time, Burnley certainly found themselves in unusual territory. It was only the second time that’s happened this season, with the other occasion coming during the 5-0 drubbing of Sheffield United.

But letting West Ham back into the game so soon after the second-half had got underway was another case of Burnley shooting themselves in the foot.

Nevertheless, they deserve credit for the grit and determination they showed for the remainder of the half. It’s something we’ve not seen anywhere near enough of this season.

The levels can’t afford to drop now, this – and last week’s display even in defeat to Bournemouth – must be the standard between now and the end of the season.

Will it be enough to avoid the drop? Probably not. But you’ve got to give yourselves a fighting chance. The last thing Burnley need is to be dead and buried by the end of March with nothing to play for during the final stages of the campaign.

In East London, Burnley showed they can go toe-to-toe with a side firmly in the top half of the table. It’s better late than never, I suppose.