Late Pearson winner seals Terriers shock

AS shocks go this will hardly register on the FA Cup Richter Scale, but Terriers defender Matty Pearson will not forget it in a hurry.

Pearson began his football life a few miles down the road with Blackburn Rovers – Burnley’s bitter rivals.

No wonder he enjoyed the 87th-minute, closerange, headed winner from Sorba Thomas’ corner, which deservedly put the Premier League side to the sword. A rash of substitutions from Terriers boss Carlos Corberan infused his Championship side with renewed energy and vigour as the Covid-hit Clarets – seven players unavailable – ran out of steam and belief.

Corberan, back on the touchline after also suffering from Covid, said: “This was a challenge and we came through it.

“We have proved that we can compete against teams at this level. The first-half was more balanced, and in the second-half the team were more brave.” Clarets boss Sean Dyche, quarantining at home after testing positive, would have been pounding the walls in utter frustration as his side’s season went from bad to worse.

Assistant boss Ian Woan said: “We could have got the game called off but that’s not the way we work. It was still a strong enough side to have won.

“They came at us strong in the second-half, but the game should have been all over at half-time.”

But Woan (right) has seen it all before in this competition – after all they did suffer the embarrassment of being knocked out by then nonleague Lincoln City here just a few seasons ago.

Now he will hope that it will not be a case of trading places with promotionpushing Huddersfield next season with his side embroiled in a relegation scrap. The Terriers’ impressive recovery after going a goal down would have been a relief for stand-in keeper Ryan Schofield, whose 39-minute cameo proved a disaster.

Schofield, called up for his first game in almost five months, laid out team-mate Tom Lees, was culpable for