Wood ends drought with winner for Burnley
All Whites star Chris Wood has broken his and Burnley’s goal drought.
Wood hadn’t scored in eight games for his English Premier League side, who have been the lowest scorers in English football this season, before yesterday’s home game against Crystal Palace.
But the big New Zealander changed that in the eighth minute when the ball fell to him in the penalty area and he beat Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
Burnley’s last EPL goal came five games ago in a 3-1 loss to Newcastle. Wood’s strike proved to be the winner as the home side kept Palace under wraps, with goalkeeper Nick Pope making a sharp save in injury time.
‘‘Every goal is very nice so it’s nice to be on the board, but it’s even more important to get three points again,’’ Wood said.
Palace were missing star forward Wilfried Zaha after he tested positive for the coronavirus.
The win in Burnley’s eighth game allowed the team to climb out of the bottom three and into fourth-to-last place on five points.
‘‘It’s a big one. It’s one we’ve been waiting a while for, but we knew it was coming because the performances have started adding up, so it was nice to actually get it over the line,’’ Wood said.
‘‘The last few games are starting to show what we’re truly about.’’
Wolverhapton Wanderers and Southampton drew 1-1 in the other match yesterday.
■ One of New Zealand’s brightest young prospects gets first taste of professional football, less than three months after signing from Wellington’s Western Suburbs.
New Zealand footballer Marko Stamenic made his professional debut for Danish Superliga club FC Copenhagen yesterday, less than three months after joining from Wellington’s Western Suburbs.
The 18-year-old played the first
71 minutes of FC Copenhagen’s disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Randers, starting the match in a holding midfield position in front of the back four.
Stamenic put in a composed performance on debut, frequently moving into pockets of space and calmly distributing the ball for his team-mates.
The former New Zealand
under-17 representative was voted man of the match by FC Copenhagen’s supporters.