Dyche laughs off talk of Euro charge but assured Burnley roar into top six
IT wasn’t the loudest chant of the night but the belief and optimism just couldn’t be disguised. ‘We’re all going on a European tour,’ sang the Burnley fans in one corner. Well, who knows? Maybe they will be gracing the continent next season. It won’t match the glamour of their 1960-61 campaign when the Clarets, as reigning champions, reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup. But nobody in Burnley is likely to care. As things stand, they could well qualify for the Europa League. Who would have predicted that? This was another superb performance by Sean Dyche’s team, now proudly in the top six of the Premier League table having moved above Tottenham. It’s pinch-me stuff for their fans at the moment. But most impressive here was the firm grip they had on proceedings, a control rewarded by goals from Chris Wood and Robbie Brady in each half. It meant Eddie Howe’s 40th birthday wasn’t especially joyous and he admitted that Joshua King’s late reply made the scoreline flattering for his sub-par side. Dyche laughed when it was put to him that Burnley could soon be playing in Europe, but his satisfaction in how his methods are paying off this season is clear. ‘We’re not trying to be Barcelona but we are trying to mix our football and be effective in as many ways as possible,’ Dyche said. ‘For our fans, it is absolutely amazing to watch their team do what they’re doing. They should enjoy all of this. We are giving the players a
chance to play and win in our style and that’s because our style suits us.’ There was certainly plenty of class about Brady’s goal midway through the second half. Burnley swept down the right-hand side, Jack Cork moving the ball on to Johann Gudmundsson, who centred to Brady. Shifting his weight, he stepped inside Andrew Surman and curled a beautiful shot into the top corner from 20 yards. In what seemed like a flash, Dyche’s side gained the two-goal advantage their dominance deserved. ‘It was a tough one to take in terms of performance. I’m very disappointed with how we played and we didn’t truly get going at any stage of the game,’ admitted Howe. ‘You have to give Burnley credit, they do what they do very well. They have improved, they are playing with confidence and they have players who can hurt you.’ At first, it was their bulldozer forward Wood inflicting all the damage. The Kiwi, signed from Leeds for £15million in August, waited 78 minutes to get off the bench against Arsenal on Sunday and clearly felt he had something to prove. Inside three minutes, his looping header clipped the top of the bar and he then darted between Nathan Ake and Steve Cook to force Asmir Begovic into a save with another forceful header. But when another chance fell the way of Wood, he couldn’t miss. The move started when Cook’s under-hit clearance was seized upon by Brady, who fed Cork and then got the ball back. Driving inside, Brady’s cross deflected off the hapless Cook right to the feet of Wood, whose fifth goal for the Clarets was a tap-in. He celebrated with a knee slide in front of the hardy travelling fans. Howe would happily have exchanged a few birthday gifts for an improved second-half display from his underperforming team but their rally came too late. Though 11 minutes remained when King turned home from close range after Jermain Defoe’s mis-hit shot had been pushed out by Nick Pope, Burnley dealt with all threats thereafter. ‘It was a great goal by Brady and then we were calm in our defending,’ added Dyche. ‘There wasn’t a frantic edge to us. We saw the game out and rightly so.’