Burnley battle back to beat 10-man Huddersfield and finally climb out of Premier League relegation zone
Huddersfield 1-2 Burnley: Christopher Schindler’s dismissal cost the home side dear as they suffered a record eighth consecutive league defeat
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Your support makes all the difference.The odds are starting to look insurmountable for Huddersfield now. A club who have delighted in defying their detractors over the past three years may finally have reached the point of no return as far as their Premier League future is concerned.
In a feisty encounter with a red card apiece, the home side played for more than half the game a man short before succumbing to Ashley Barnes’ winner with 16 minutes left. Defeat was Huddersfield’s eighth in a row in the league, a new club record. Burnley’s second win in four days lifted them out of the relegation zone.
Dean Hoyle, Huddersfield’s chairman and a lifelong supporter of the club, called for unity in his programme notes, fully aware that their spirit is probably the strongest weapon they have left.
“If we lose that togetherness now, then it’s over,” he wrote. Hoyle also gave his full support to head coach David Wagner, to whom he has promised financial support this month to bolster a squad that has been woefully short of goals throughout their season-and-a-half in the Premier League.
“He pushes himself as hard as anyone at this club and deserves all the backing in the world,” Hoyle wrote.
Wagner’s faith in survival must have been stretched to the limit during a dramatic closing 12 minutes to the first half, in which Huddersfield took the lead, lost it, and then saw their centre-back Christopher Schindler sent off for a second bookable offence.
Judging by his protests towards referee Mike Dean, centre-back Schindler did not realise he had already been booked as he dragged down Dwight McNeil 25 yards from goal. It was certainly hard to argue with Dean’s decision.
It was a dramatic turning point in a match that had looked to be going Huddersfield’s way. Goalkeeper Jonas Lossl had just made a fine double save to keep out a Ben Mee header and an Ashley Barnes follow-up when the home side took the lead.
For Steve Mounie, it was a moment to savour: his first club goal since April. The Benin striker climbed between Ben Mee and Charlie Taylor to bounce a header beyond Tom Heaton from Isaac Mbenza’s cross.
The goal was reward for Huddersfield’s probing in the opening half-an-hour; Schindler had actually gone closest for them before the opening goal, but his poke goalwards hit team-mate Alex Pritchard and bounced away after Philip Billing’s throw had caused chaos in the Burnley penalty area.
Having taken the lead, though, Huddersfield lost it seven minutes later. McNeil used his quick feet to bamboozle Florent Hadergjonaj down the left before crossing low for Chris Wood to turn in from six yards.
A man to the good, Burnley went in search of a second victory in four days. Early in the second half, Wood headed just wide at the far post from Ashley Westwood’s corner as Lossl flapped at air.
They escaped a penalty appeal when Billing’s header from an Mbenza corner struck Mee on the arm, albeit at such close range that the centre-back would have struggled to get out of the way.
The visitors were looking more of a threat on the break, though, with Westwood feeding a pass left to the onrushing Johann Gudmundsson, whose first-time shot was blocked by Lossl.
Huddersfield had to defend bravely, and sometimes painfully. Erik Durm, on as a substitute in the reshuffle that followed Schindler’s sending off, took a blow to the head in blocking Gudmundsson’s header from a Taylor cross, showing just the kind of spirit the home side needed.
Gudmundsson then steered over after a free-kick had been punched out to the edge of the penalty area by Lossl, and Wood headed over from a Taylor cross.
Yet Huddersfield were holding on by now. It seemed a matter of time before Burnley found a winner; it came with 16 minutes to play, as Barnes, freed by neat build-up play from Wood and Westwood, drilled a shot beyond Lossl to increase the home side’s sense of agony.
There was still more drama to come, as Burnley substitute Robbie Brady was sent off late on for hacking down Mbenza, but this was a night for the visitors to celebrate.
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