Bournemouth 1 - Burnley 2: Wood and Brady sink Cherries as Dyche's men march on
BURNLEY climbed to sixth in the Premier League with a classy win at Bournemouth to ruin Eddie Howe’s 40th birthday.
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Chris Wood and Robbie Brady had put the Clarets in control but Josh King pulled one back to set up a tense finish on the South Coast.
This was a face-off between two of the brightest young English managers in the game and fans of both clubs will have been relieved to see their managers still in post after being linked elsewhere.
Burnley had won 11 away points already after earning only seven in the whole of 2016/17.
They looked to be on their way to more after four minutes when record signing Wood headed onto the crossbar after Ben Mee had knocked Brady’s corner back across goal.
The Clarets started brightly as they looked to force their way into the top six with Brady also firing into the side-netting.
Wood, who missed out to Ashley Barnes in the weekend defeat to Arsenal, soon went close again as he headed Phil Bardsley’s cross down into the ground forcing Asmir Begovic to push the bouncing ball over.
The Cherries then had Steve Cook to thank for keeping the scores level as he slid in to block Jeff Hendrick from converting Wood’s pass across the six-yard box.
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The pressure told when £15million man Wood stabbed the ball beyond Begovic after Cook had deflected Brady’s cross into his path.
In the freezing cold, the travelling fans greeted the goal with chants of “we’re all going on a European tour”.
Burnley were no less relentless in their intensity after the break as home frustrations continued.
Howe responded by bringing on Jermain Defoe in place of Marc Pugh just after the hour mark.
But it was Burnley who struck again with a brilliant strike from the outstanding Brady.
The Irish winger collected Johann Gudmundsson’s pass on the edge of the Bournemouth box, cut inside Andrew Surman and unleashed a brilliant curling effort into the right corner via a slight deflection off Surman.
Finally Bournemouth did respond as Defoe pushed the ball back across goal where Josh King was waiting to poke the ball into the roof of the net to set up a nervy final 10 minutes.
But Dyche’s men were focussed to the last as their excellent season continued.
