Home draw takes unbeaten run to four
Burnley made it four games without defeat with Tuesday’s 1-1 home draw against Wolves but with results elsewhere, it’s taken us that little bit further away from potential safety.
This was a game we could so easily have won, but also one we could have lost. Yet, just three days after the nonsensical refereeing from Darren England, we conceded another goal that resulted from a poor error from the match official, this time Thomas Bramall, and this after Jacob Bruun Larsen had given us the lead.
Vincent Kompany made two changes to the team that had heroically returned from Chelsea with a point. Neither were really a surprise in personnel but the formation was somewhat mystifying. Charlie Taylor came in for the suspended Lorenz Assignon with Vitinho moving over to the right. The other change saw David Datro Fofana, ineligible at Chelsea, return with Zeki Amdouni dropping out. If anyone was excited at the prospect of Fofana partnering Lyle Foster up front they were in for a big disappointment with Foster, bizarrely, employed on the right flank.
Both goals came in the first half but it wasn’t an incident packed forty-five minutes although both sides did have their chances. Only some quick action from Vitinho prevented Wolves from getting in an early shot but they really should have gone in front when João Gomes missed the target with a header when it looked easier to score.
Finally we came to life. Vitinho did really well when he received the ball from Foster, moved into the box and came inside the defender before seeing his left foot shot saved by José Sá. It kicked off a good spell from the Clarets which saw us take the lead.
It was a good goal too and came straight from goalkeeper Arijanet Muric who found Dara O’Shea. His ball from the right found Jacob Bruun Larsen unmarked on the left hand side of the Wolves box. With great technique he volleyed home a shot back past the goalkeeper and right into the bottom corner of his net.
We were just eight minutes plus stoppage time from half time but we weren’t able to hold the lead but it was yet another controversial moment. Referee Thomas Bramall awarded Wolves a free kick for an O’Shea foul on Rayan Aït-Nouri. Now, in some ways, this was an even worse decision than the farcical penalty award at Chelsea. It looked obvious from my vantage point that there was no contact but Bramall couldn’t spot that from his perfect position. It didn’t lead to a penalty nor did we have a player sent off, so it can’t be compared to what happened at Stamford Bridge.
The farce wasn’t over at that. Bramall restarted the game and then stopped it for a VAR check. I was under the impression that wasn’t permitted but the goal was cleared and he then blew for half time as we tried a shot at goal in what had to be sheer frustration.
Although there were no goals in the second half, we did see the two goalkeepers more involved and for his second half performance, Sá would surely have won the man of the match. After Muric kept us level with a really good save to deny Aït-Nouri a second, Sá first made a good save with his feet to deny Bruun Larsen and then made two saves from Wilson Odobert, the second of them routine but a very good stop for the first.
Even so, Mario Lemina looked as if he was winning it for Wolves with a headed chance. Somehow he got it wide of the post, possibly even nicking the post. Had it been on target, Muric would not have been able to get close to it.
A draw it was and a fourth game without defeat, but there was no good news from elsewhere with Everton grabbing a late equaliser at Newcastle in the clash of the former Burnley managers. It was even worse at Nottingham Forest who beat Fulham to leave us further away from safety than we were at kick off.
With Luton having lost at Arsenal last night, we are now just three points behind them but are significantly six and seven points behind Forest and Everton respectively, two teams we still have to play and, you would think, two teams we would have to beat to have a chance of staying up.
We’ve played better than we did in this game but this was a game we would probably have lost not too long ago although we really do have to learn how to defend set-pieces and we really do have to learn to keep leads, the number of points dropped from winning positions is now a staggering 22. Imagine if we’d been able to keep half of them.
It’s Everton next, as close to a must win game as it probably can be.
The teams were;
Burnley: Arijanet Muric, Vitinho, Dara O’Shea, Maxime Estève, Charlie Taylor, Lyle Foster (Manuel Benson 86), Sander Berge, Josh Cullen, Jacob Bruun Larsen (Jay Rodriguez 73), Wilson Odobert, David Datro Fofana. Subs not used: Lawrence Vigouroux, Hjalmar Ekdal, Hannes Delcroix, Jack Cork, Josh Brownhill, Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson, Zeki Amdouni.
Wolves: José Sá, Nélson Semedo, Max Kilman, Toti Gomes, Santiago Bueno (Hugo Bueno 68), Matt Doherty, Mario Lemina, João Gomes, Rayan Aït-Nouri, Pablo Sarabia (Boubacar Traoré 83), Leon Chiwome (Matheus Cunha 76). Subs not used: Dan Bentley, Tommy Doyle, Noah Lemina, Ty Barnett, Tawanda Chirewa, Nathan Fraser.
Yellow Cards: Nélson Semedo, João Gomes.
Referee: Thomas Bramall (South Yorkshire).
Attendance: 21,528.
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