Verdict: Burnley's ugly win at Coventry City a sure sign of their promotion credentials
It was far from pretty, but these are exactly the types of victories that win you promotion.
Burnley had to dig deep – and then some – as they claimed a hugely significant three points on a day that brought about a huge swing in the fight for the top two.
Starting the day in third place, Scott Parker’s men finished it at the summit after leapfrogging Leeds United and Sheffield United – who suffered disappointing results at Luton and Oxford respectively. If Carlsberg did Saturday’s…
Burnley could easily have joined their promotion rivals in dropping points, this was one of their most challenging games in quite some time.
But this group of players, as they’ve proven time after time, are prepared to go to the well to get the job done. They will take themselves to uncomfortable places to see out a victory.
They won’t be winning any beauty contests for this sort of display, but those jubilant Clarets tanning themselves in the Coventry sunshine won’t have cared one jot.
Baffling
And yet, it could have all been so different.
Having made such a promising start to the game, the visitors found themselves in the unusual position of falling behind after just six minutes.
There was huge controversy involved in the goal. Haji Wright was standing in a clear offside position, beyond even goalkeeper James Trafford, as he steered home from virtually on the goalline.
Burnley’s players were indignant, immediately rushing over the linesman to vent their vociferous appeals. Despite referee James Bell marching over to discuss the incident with his assistant, those appeals fell on deaf ears. Replays showed the Coventry man was well off.
As bad as the decision was, and it was a stinker, Burnley were undone alarmingly easily down their left flank. Josh Laurent missed the opportunity to win a 50/50 while Lucas Pires was also caught well out of position.
The hosts almost capitalised before Wright struck from an offside position, but Trafford turned the goalbound shot onto his post before Connor Roberts made a goalline block.
Either way, there was no doubt Burnley had found themselves on the wrong end of a shocking decision.
Response
Importantly though, they didn’t feel sorry for themselves. It would have been so easy to dwell on a sense of injustice and play the remainder of the game on emotion. But they didn’t.
Instead, they knuckled down and simply went about their business, getting their reward 10 minutes later when Jaidon Anthony slotted home his first of the game.
It was a simple finish from the winger, who had an empty net in front of him after Marcus Edwards, Josh Cullen and latterly Lyle Foster had all combined down the right to pull the ball back into the danger area.
After wrestling back a bit of control, the remainder of the first-half was a fascinating affair. Burnley largely controlled it in terms of possession, but defensively they were uncharacteristically frail as Coventry penetrated their backline alarmingly easily on more than one occasion. But thankfully they weren’t able to capitalise.
The game was finely poised as we entered the second-half. It was always going to be a huge 45 minutes in the context of Burnley’s season.
Within 60 seconds, Parker’s men had completed their comeback after Anthony capitalised on a defensive gaffe to bag his second of the game.
Stand-in goalkeeper Brad Collins and Liam Kitching both failed to take control of the situation as the ball bounced in between them. Anthony took full advantage, nipping in to slot the ball through the stranded goalkeeper’s legs and into the back of the empty net, for a second time.
Head loss
As we all know, once Burnley get their noses in front it’s extremely difficult to reel them back in. To be fair to them, Coventry gave it a good go.
For the subsequent 40 minutes or so, Frank Lampard’s side dominated possession and put Burnley under huge swathes of pressure. Yet for all that control of the ball, Burnley restricted them to very little in the way of clear-cut chances. The only work Trafford had to do was dealing with those threatening long throws into his six-yard box.
Burnley used all of their experience, game management and know-how, or ‘dark arts’ if you’re of a Coventry persuasion, to see out the nervy dying minutes. There was a huge sigh of relief once the final whistle finally arrived.
For Coventry, however, there appeared to be a collective head loss. Lampard was sent off after confronting the referee at full-time, while the home fans vented their vitriol at the man in black as he and his officials departed the field of play.
Bell had a poor game, I don’t think that can be in doubt. But it seems the 26,000 or so Coventry fans conveniently forgot it was their side that benefitted from a huge error, not Burnley.
The ref made a number of bizarre calls for both sides, seemingly guessing with a number of his decisions. But he’s not the reason why Coventry lost.
Timely return
For Burnley, they return to the top of the Championship for the first time in 169 days. The last time they sat at the summit was when they beat Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in October.
They’re clearly in no mood to be giving anything up at this moment in time. They’re the division’s form side, winning eight of their last 10.
It’s also worth noting they’re still yet to concede more than once in a league game this season. That particular record was under threat after conceding so early on against Coventry, but over their dead bodies will they concede two.
It’s been a hugely favourable few days for Burnley, but there’s a lot of work to be done yet. On we go to Derby.