Burnley vs Swansea City. Premier League.
Turf MoorAttendance17,388.
Saturday 28 February 2015 19:41, UK
A chaotic own goal by Tom Heaton handed Swansea a 1-0 victory at Turf Moor to take them to the magical 40-point mark and leave Burnley winless in six.
The game was settled in the 64th minute when Heaton failed to keep out Kieran Trippier's attempted clearance after Jack Cork struck the underside of the crossbar from Bafetimbi Gomis' flick.
Garry Monk's side held on to celebrate back-to-back victories for just the third time in the Premier League this season, as they built on last week's famous win over Manchester United and maintained their hopes of a top-10 finish.
Swansea striker Gomis had missed the best chance of the first half, but Burnley will count themselves aggrieved to get nothing after just about having the better of a gruelling game.
Ashley Barnes - showing no ill effects from the reaction to his challenge on Nemanja Matic last week - looked bright up front while George Boyd and Michael Kightly also had chances in an uninspiring first half.
For long spells it looked like Gomis would be left to rue his awful first-half miss when he sprang the hosts' offside trap only to put his effort wide of Heaton's goal.
Moments earlier, Gomis had served up what passed for the visitors' only shot on target in the opening 45 minutes when he drilled a low shot straight at the Burnley keeper.
The hosts had a strong penalty claim rejected by referee Jonathan Moss in the 53rd minute.after Federico Fernandez appeared to handle in the box. Kightly rescued a lost cause on the left and cut along the goal-line to hit a shot which Fabianski parried, and the ball appeared to strike the arm of Fernandez before being cleared.
As the hosts began to stretch the game, Barnes came close on the hour mark, latching onto a long ball from Trippier and controlling superbly before firing inches wide of Fabianski's left-hand post.
But just as Burnley looked more likely to break the deadlock, it was Swansea who grabbed the lead following a mighty goalmouth melee.
Gomis flicked on a Jonjo Shelvey cross to Cork, whose initial effort at the far post was brilliantly tipped against the bar by Burnley keeper Heaton. The rebound again found Cork whose second shot across goal struck the unfortunate Trippier and was deflected into his own net by the goalkeeper in the 64th minute.
Swans keeper Lukasz Fabianski pulled off two fine late saves to deny first Barnes then substitute Sam Vokes, but despite a generous five minutes of stoppage time the hosts did not come up with another chance.
The result handed Monk's side their third win in their last 12 top-flight away games, while the Clarets remain in relegation trouble in 18th.
SOCCER SATURDAY ANALYSIS - MATT LE TISSIER
"Burnley didn't create too many chances for a home side if I'm being honest. Barnes had a couple of chances which he could have done better with but Fabianski did well to block them. They were quite sharp chances and Barnes didn’t have a lot of space but Fabianski was there. Burnley lacked a little bit of invention but they were the better team for the first 25 minutes, they looked the more dominant side and Swansea took a while to get going but they had the better end to the first half when Gomis had an effort.
"I don’t think Swansea did enough to take three points from this game. Swansea are increasingly hard to beat, they were well organised today, Fabianski had to make those two saves but not much else after that. They looked dangerous on the counter after they went 1-0 up. Ings wasn’t in the game much today, he worked hard but didn't put himself in too many positions and I don't remember him have a chance today which isn't good enough."
Player ratings
Burnley: Heaton (6) Trippier (5) Keane (5) Shackell (6) Mee (5) Boyd (6) Jones (6) Arfield (6) Kightly (6) Barnes (7) Ings (7).
Subs: Vokes (6) Jutkiewicz (4).
Swansea: Fabianski (8) Naughton (6) Williams (6) Fernandez (6) Taylor (7) Shelvey (7) Cork (6) Carroll (6) Ki (7) Routledge (7) Gomis (7).
Subs: Montero (6) Amat (6) Oliveira (5).
Man of the match: Lukasz Fabianski.
