Burnley 1 - Stoke 0: Ashley Barnes leaves it late as Clarets go fourth
ASHLEY BARNES’ dramatic 88th-minute winner lifted Sean Dyche and Burnley into the top four of English football’s top division for the first time since 1975 last night.
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The pragmatic Burnley manager is still talking only of Premier League survival but thanks to Barnes, who controlled Jack Cork’s long ball and played a one-two with Scott Anfield before scoring from 16 yards, his supporters can relish the fact they stand above the likes of Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool – for 24 hours at least.
But Burnley took their time to net the dramatic winner and if watching England manager Gareth Southgate was expecting to see his potential World Cup goalkeeper Jack Butland seriously tested in the Stoke goal he would have been disappointed, in the first half at least.
The visiting keeper fumbled a cross, and had to be rescued by full-back Erik Pieters but that was a rare moment of hope for Burnley as they looked for the win that would lift them into the Champions League places.
Instead, it was the struggling visitors who looked more likely to one the scoring at a wintry Turf Moor.
Peter Crouch set up an early shot which Xherdan Shaqiri drove straight at Nick Pope in the Burnley goal and then Ramadan’s cross found Crouch at the far post for a shot which was well covered by the home keeper.
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Shaqiri’s expert corner soon found defender Kurt Zouma whose first-time shot, from 15 yards, was directed straight at Pope, to the relief of home supporters who had not expected the evening to unfold in this fashion.
Butland might have embarrassed himself in front of his watching national team manager when he fumbled a cross and had to be rescued by Erik Pieters but, aside from a long shot from Johann Berg Gudmundsson that curled over the bar, there was little else to trouble him in the first period.
Burnley were a marginally more threatening prospect after the restart, defenders Kevin Long and James Tarkowski narrowly missing Gudmundsson’s far-post free-kick.
A poor clearance from Stoke sub Kevin Wimmer also opened up a shot for Steven Defour which he drilled directly at Butland before Chris Wood’s failed attempted overhead kick presented Gudmundsson with a shooting chance that flew over.
Despite the solid performance, it was not all plain sailing for Stoke boss Hughes who was jeered by his own fans as he substituted Shaqiri late in the game.
