Tarkowski lifts Burnley as they divert attention from confidence crisis
SOMETIMES it is the manner of victories that bear real significance, and Burnley will hold on to how they clung on.
The result, only their third victory since April, lifted them out of the bottom three but that it possessed real resolve in keeping Brighton at bay may have meant more to manager Sean Dyche than the points.
Joe Hart pulled off a stunning reflex save to prevent Glenn Murray from equalising, James Tarkowski — the scorer of the winner — had to divert a wicked cross away and Jurgen Locadia somehow headed over from eight yards when unmarked.
Burnley thrive when having to fight against something and this week’s furore over the ferocity of their tackling against Liverpool has undoubtedly galvanised a group who need a common cause.
‘We are kind of getting back to where we should be,’ Dyche said. ‘We’ve played better than we did today, but the basics were done well. Those features are coming back and that is a base to work on.
‘There is a mixture of joy but a bit of relief. The crowd felt that at the end when they were throwing corners in and the ball was spinning.’
That relief was palpable at full-time, Hart pumping his fists towards supporters who had earlier jeered at the time-wasting of Brighton’s Mat Ryan and their team’s incompetence in midfield.
At times, this felt like death by a thousand misplaced passes. Burnley are still not playing anywhere close to their capabilities, and the 40th-minute winner rather summed up the game.
Brighton had passed up three separate opportunities to clear from a routine set-piece, failing to put enough distance on their headers. Jack Cork pounced on the bouncing ball, drove towards goal and Tarkowski — standing beside Ryan — cleverly manoeuvred his chest to divert the ball into the corner. Beautiful it was not.
The half had been miserable until that point, the sort of afternoon when attention wanders from the two wind turbines slowly twirling atop the hills near Turf Moor, to the gloomy cloud formations.
Dyche’s players are still fearful on the ball, making mistakes because they are overly careful not to, they are besieged by a crisis of confidence.
The Burnley manager complained that Martin Atkinson should have awarded them a penalty when Yves Bissouma’s high boot caught Phil Bardsley. It would have been ludicrously harsh. ‘We’ve got to start getting our fair share,’ Dyche said. ‘We’ve not had one in 58 games.’
Chris Hughton, the Brighton boss, thought Burnley’s victory was unjust. ‘I thought we were the better team,’ he said. ‘As the game went on we were more likely.’