GONE IN 60 SECONDS
Burnley on the brink after Vardy cashes in on Taylor blunder to give Leicester victory
BURNLEY’S season went from hope to despair inside a minute after Matt Taylor smacked a penalty against the post and Jamie Vardy scored at the other end.
It lifted Leicester out of the relegation zone and turned their hosts into hot favourites for the drop.
Leicester’s win was a landmark victory: the first time in almost five decades they have won four consecutive top-flight games in the same season. And what a time to win them: just as they were being written off as certainties for relegation they embarked on what looks like a survival run.
They are out of the bottom three for the first time since November. Defeat leaves Burnley there instead, five points from safety and with fixtures ahead that won’t make it easy to bridge that gap.
‘The game is cruel sometimes and that was the game at its cruellest today,’ said Burnley’s manager Sean Dyche. ‘We miss a penalty and they score from a knock into the area. Our performance had been good enough to win, especially in the second half. It’s a blow for us to lose but we’ve been written off all season so we’re not in new territory.’
Dyche’s counterpart Nigel Pearson was less effusive, saying it was ‘not a great game’ and that it was played by two teams ‘in fear of losing.’ He added: ‘But we defended with real spirit and the result is far more important than the performance today.
‘At this stage it’s all about getting results. To win four on the trot is all very well but with five games to go it’s important we keep our fate in our own hands. It’s important we stay focused.’
Burnley have won hearts but not enough matches in their role as the minnow club from the only town represented in England’s elite division and sit five points from safety. Asked if his team can still stay up, Dyche said: ‘Never say never. . . it’s do-able.’
Burnley have just two wins in 18 games, against Manchester City and QPR, and have scored only three goals in their last 10 games and none for eight hours.
If ever there was a time for young star striker Danny Ings to end an eight-game goal drought then this was it.
A sloppy clearance by Leicester in the second minute allowed Taylor to pounce and pass forward and left to runner Ings but the latter could only plonk his shot into an oncoming defender.
Vardy, the epitome of the penalty area nuisance, had the next decent sight of goal, spinning in the box and shooting low but the ball was easily stopped by Tom Heaton.
Burnley went close to scoring in the 31st minute, when Kieran Trippier’s corner was headed on by Michael Duff to Taylor, whose shot from inside the six yard box elicited a point blank save from Kasper Schmeichel.
If Burnley don’t manage to stay up then there is an inevitability about the departure of Ings, 22, coveted by the bigger teams in the division.
Trippier, 24, won’t lack for suitors either after his impressive displays at right back this season. Burnley fans of course will be dreaming they can yet stay up and these men can develop with them.
Burnley’s remaining four games are away at West Ham and Hull, home to Stoke and then away to Aston Villa on the final day, so there is still everything to play for. But they need goals, and quickly.
The visitors started in search of a fourth straight top-flight win in the same season for the first time since Autumn 1966 — but knowing history in the Premier League still leans towards them dropping from the division.
They had spent 140 days on the foot of the table before moving off it last weekend and no team has even spent that long on the bottom in a Premier League season without going down at the end of it.
Leicester were bottom at Christmas too, of course, and only West Brom (in 2004-05) and Sunderland last season have ever made the great escape from that position to safety come season’s end.
Leicester next have three home games, against Chelsea, Newcastle and Southampton, which offer a range of challenges, before playing at Sunderland and then at home against QPR on the final day.
They started the second half brightly and might have gone ahead four minutes after the break if Esteban Cambiasso’s left-foot freekick from outside the area had kept down by a foot or so as it soared over the wall and dipped over the bar.
On the hour, the fortunes of the sides were defined in 59 seconds of agony and ecstacy.