Wood nets Burnley winner
All Whites star Chris Wood has broken his and Burnley’s goal drought.
Wood hadn’t scored in eight games for his English Premier League side, who have been the lowest scorers in English football this season, before yesterday’s home game against Crystal Palace.
But the big New Zealander changed that in the eighth minute when the ball fell to him in the penalty area and he beat Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
Burnley’s last EPL goal came five games ago in a 3-1 loss to Newcastle. Wood’s strike proved to be the winner as the home side kept Palace under wraps, with goalkeeper Nick Pope making a sharp save in injury time.
‘‘Every goal is very nice so it’s nice to be on the board tonight, but it’s even more important to get three points again,’’ Wood said.
‘‘It’s been a bit of time coming, but it was nice to get off the mark in that sense as a group and the defence has done well to see out the game really well. It was a fan
tastic performance from them.
‘‘We’ve been working hard trying to put it right and thankfully tonight we did.’’
Palace were missing star forward Wilfried Zaha after he tested positive for the coronavirus.
The win in Burnley’s eighth game allowed the team to climb out of the bottom three and into fourth-to-last place on five points.
‘‘It’s a big one. It’s one we’ve been waiting a while for, but we knew it was coming because the
performances have started adding up, so it was nice to actually get it over the line,’’ Wood said.
‘‘The last few games are starting to show what we’re truly about. The first three or four games weren’t us and it’s nice to show the work we’re doing is coming to the fore and getting us what we deserve, I think.
‘‘We played well and nullified them when they had the chance.’’
Wolves and Southampton drew 1-1 in the other match yesterday.