BIRTHDAY BUMPS HIT HOWE HARD
EDDIE HOWE checked into Forty Towers – but instead of gourmet night, it was gormless night at the Vitality Stadium.
On Howe’s 40th birthday, it was chilly enough at the seaside to use the candy floss as cavity wall insulation, and Bournemouth served up a dish best forgotten for their frustrated manager.
Howe was on parade at work by 6.30am, going through set-piece permutations and poring over video analysis, without opening his presents and cards.
If he had as much fun blowing out the candles on his cake when he got home, the kitchen would have caught fire.
Bullied by Kiwi battering ram Chris Wood and outplayed in midfield, Bournemouth were poor from start to finish.
As for Sean Dyche’s highflying Clarets, please do not adjust your sets: That is Burnley above Tottenham in the Premier League table.
The Clarets were ahead in the 37th minute when Robbie Brady’s cross-shot took a helpful deflection into Wood’s path and Burnley’s record £15million signing made no mistake from five yards, his sixth goal of the season.
Don’t fall for the lazy propaganda that Burnley are long-ball merchants.
Too often they are damned with the language of faint praise – direct, physical, hard-working – but here they were vibrant, inventive and progressive.
Never were those virtues better illustrated than Ireland winger Brady’s 20-yard rocket to increase the Clarets’ advantage 20 minutes after the break.
To their credit, Bournemouth refused to throw in the towel and 11 minutes from time substitute Jermain Defoe’s crossshot fell kindly for Josh King to set up a lively finish.