Verdict: Burnley simply refuse to lose - or concede - as Sunderland thwarted by James Trafford penalty heroics

This bonkers game requires proper dissection, but it’s worth starting this piece focusing on some of the headline figures.

Burnley are now unbeaten in their last 15 games in league and cup and, at the time of writing, are now level on points with the leaders. They’ve still only lost twice all season and one of those defeats, away at Sunderland back in August, comes with an asterisk attached.

Defensively the Clarets are, quite frankly, a joke. They’ve now only conceded nine times in 27 games – an exact ratio of a goal conceded every three matches.

More impressively, for me anyway, is their quite staggering clean sheet record, which now stands at 18 – and we’re only in mid-January. They remain on course to shatter all sorts of records.

While several of those shutouts have been a team effort, based on team structure, compactness and a hunger to keep the ball out of their net, not just a reliance on the goalkeeper James Trafford, this particular clean sheet owed a lot to their number one and his late penalty heroics.

Inspired

Trafford is still only young, aged 22, but he’s already garnering himself a reputation for being something of a penalty specialist.

Burnley fans will fondly recall watching on TV, just prior to his arrival at Turf Moor, as the Cumbrian saved a late minute spot kick as England’s Under-21s lifted the Euros.

Clips did the rounds of Cole Palmer, a former teammate of Trafford’s in Manchester City’s academy, confidently predicting he would come up with the goods as he watched on from the substitute’s bench. There was barely a doubt in Palmer’s mind that Trafford would make the save. Cold indeed.

On this occasion, Trafford did everything in his power to get in Wilson Isidor’s head before he even placed the ball on the spot and his antics worked a treat. Isidor was beaten before he even stepped up.

That’s not to say his penalties were poor, because they weren’t. While he went the same way on both occasions, and neither were directly in the corner, they were still powerful strikes and Trafford still had plenty to do.

But when you’ve got the confidence and, let’s be frank, the outright arrogance to back yourself like Trafford does, don’t be surprised when he pulls off something spectacular.

And when you have CJ Egan-Riley producing a superb last-ditch block from close range sandwiched in-between the two late penalties, these are the moments that can define a season.

A game that appeared destined for a defeat, a first since the start of November, brought about a point for the Clarets – one that could well prove crucial in the fight for automatic promotion.

Ebb and flow

The late drama will inevitably garner all the attention but, despite the lack of goals, I thought this was a compelling spectacle between two sides battling it out for the same objective.

Tactically it was high-end stuff. Burnley had the upper hand early on as they came firing out of the blocks for the first 15 to 20 minutes. They did everything right other than score, which they could easily have done when Jaidon Anthony’s curling effort was expertly tipped around the post by Sunderland keeper Anthony Patterson.

The Black Cats slowly but surely worked their way back into the game though and forced spells of pressure themselves, although Burnley limited them to very little in the first-half.

The only scares came when the Clarets put themselves under too much pressure with one too-many backwards passes as they looked to invite Sunderland onto them before picking them off.

I felt a bit sorry for Trafford, who drew anxious cries from the home terraces for the time he took over the ball as he waited for a Sunderland man to close him down – a tactic he had clearly been instructed to deliver.

It was a risky approach to take, so I understand some of the nervousness. Sunderland – a young and dynamic team under Regis Le Bris – press excellently and give you no time on the ball. But Burnley were having success with it, it’s not like it wasn’t paying dividends at all.

But there was certainly a five to 10-minute spell where the Black Cats were getting on top of the hosts and making them live on the edge a little too often.

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Burnley didn’t really get going in the second period but, in a half dominated by talk of penalties, they were denied one of their own when Zian Flemming was floored inside the six-yard box by Luke O’Nien just as he was about to pull the trigger.

Seconds earlier the Dutchman had also squandered a major chance to open the scoring when he failed to hit the target from Josh Brownhill’s knockdown.

The visitors immediately hit back with a great chance of their own as Isidor, that man again, could only clip the outside of the post as he got in between two Burnley defenders.

For the final 20 minutes or so, the game was fizzling out. You could tell both sides were a little conflicted whether to stick or twist.

As it transpired, the game ended in pure madness as referee Anthony Backhouse – who made a series of bizarre calls all night – adjudged CJ Egan-Riley’s trip on Isidor to be inside the box, when it was clearly out. Justice was served when Trafford made the save.

The second one, while still a little soft, Burnley can have fewer complaints about. Oliver Sonne, on home debut, doesn’t need to go to ground and lunge at the Sunderland man. He gave the referee a decision to make.

But Trafford saved his blushes as the keeper, constantly linked with a move to Sunderland’s fierce rivals Newcastle, let’s not forget, proved the hero of the hour.