Burnley still on tenterhooks after King strikes
THEY thought they had done it. For two minutes they had.
A glancing header from Sam Vokes had Burnley level and their travelling fans believed they had earned the point to secure their Premier League future.
Two minutes later, Ryan Fraser cut a ball in from the left, Joshua King took a touch and finished through Tom Heaton’s leg. The wait for certainty goes on.
They are almost there. Despite the defeat they are nearly over the line. If Hull fail to win against Crystal Palace today they will have made it. If they were relegated it would go down as the unluckiest in Premier League history.
‘The lads have given a lot to the cause,’ said Burnley manager Sean Dyche. ‘It really was a flat second half without energy and spark and if you do that at this level you don’t win. I thought we could’ve seen it out to get a point.’
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe praised King scoring his 16th goal of the season to win it.
‘He just believes he is going to score, he goes into games believing he is going to,’ Howe said.
Howe’s side took the lead, 25 minutes into the match. The goal was simple: Lewis Cook clipped a ball over the top, Junior Stanislas sprinted in from the right flank, controlled with his chest before rolling the ball, into the bottom left corner, under Heaton’s dive.
Results elsewhere were going their way, and one over-excited Burnley fan, launched an inflatable champagne bottle on to the pitch 10 minutes into the second half.
A minute later, Scott Arfield — perhaps stirred on by the thought of some postmatch celebratory bubbly — hit a swirling shot from the edge of the penalty area which banked the wrong side of the right post.
His team-mates did not respond in the same fashion and the Cherries kept Burnley largely pinned back in their own third, for the rest of the game.
Then Johann Berg Gudmundsson sent in a cross from the right and Vokes nestled the ball off his forehead and into the far left corner. ‘We are staying up!’ the raucous Burnley fans sang.
Not quite, at least not yet anyway. Bournemouth (4-4-1-1): Boruc 6.5; A Smith 6, Francis 6, S Cook 6, Daniels 6; Stanislas 7 (Ibe 87min), Arter 6 (Gosling 81), L Cook 6.5, Pugh 6; King 6.5; Mousset 6 (R Fraser 66, 6). Subs (not used): Allsop, Gradel, B Smith, Mings. Burnley (4-4-2): Heaton 6; Lowton 6, Long 6, Tarkowski 6, Ward 6; Boyd 6 (Brady 55, 6), Westwood 6, Hendrick 6, Arfield 6.5 (Gudmundsson 75); Vokes 6, Barnes 6 (Gray 46, 6). Subs (not used): Pope, Flanagan, Defour, Darikwa. Booked: Brady. referee: L Probert 6.