Burnley 3-2 Everton (Collins ’12, Richarlison P’18, P’41, Rodriguez ’57, Cornet ’85)
TURF MOOR – Frank Lampard saw his struggling Everton side slip ever closer to ending their 68-year stay in top-flight football as they conceded a dramatic 85th minute winner to Maxwel Cornet and Burnley.
The Clarets winger struck what might prove to be a priceless goal – literally and metaphorically – for Sean Dyche’s side after Lampard’s men had squandered a lead gifted to them by Burnley conceding a pair of first half penalties.
Victory looked like a forlorn hope for Burnley, who would have trailed Everton by seven points with defeat, until Jay Rodriguez struck a second half equaliser.
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Now, with imminent fixtures against Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea in their next four games, Everton’s task of avoiding relegation is growing harder by the week.
Two teams who had each scored a paltry two goals in their previous six league games before Wednesday’s match served up a first half which made up in tension and importance what it lacked in quality.
And it ended with Everton enjoying a crucial one-goal cushion thanks to two Richarlison penalties and some woefully naive home defending.
But first, Burnley gave their supporters a glimmer of what appeared to be false hope – taking a 12th minute lead which ended a run of 412 minutes without finding the net.
After former Evertonian Aaron Lennon won a corner, Cornet swung over a far-post corner and Nathan Collins was unmarked to neatly score his first goal for the club with a side-foot volley.
It was a perfect start for the Clarets, looking to move to within a point of the struggling Toffees.
And it was a major test of character for Lampard’s side who have been accused of lacking precisely that during a run which has seen them win just three of their previous 22 league games.
It was a test they initially passed, just six minutes after falling behind; Charlie Taylor tugging at young winger Anthony Gordon and referee Mike Dean awarding the spot kick on the say of his assistant.
Richarlison took a nonchalant stroll to the ball, stutter-stepped, and rolled it into the bottom right-hand corner.
It was a manoeuvre he would be allowed to repeat, in similar fashion and identical result, four minutes before the interval.
This time Lennon caught Everton’s Ukrainian full-back Vitaliy Mykolenko and, after Dean consulted VAR and his monitor, Richarlison handed his side the lead.
Dean was booed off at the interval by the home fans, but the mood soon changed as Burnley made a strong start, and spell of pressure, count at the start of the second half.
A deserved equaliser came on 56 minutes when full-back Charlie Taylor made a committed run to the by-line and drilled over a low cross which Rodriguez hammered in from point-blank range.
It was a goal on the counter, after Jonjoe Kenny’s cross had almost been turned in at the far post by Richarlison and the Brazilian, with just three league goals all season before last night, was in the mood for a hat-trick.
It almost arrived after the hour when his acrobatic overhead kick was well saved by Nick Pope at the foot of his post.
But as Everton looked in desperation for a third goal, Salomon Rondon’s volley was the closest they could come as it flew well wide.
Player ratings
Burnley
- Pope 6
- Roberts 6
- Collins 7
- Tarkowski 7
- Taylor 7
- Lennon 8
- Westwood 7
- Brownhill 6
- Cornet 7
- Rodriguez 7
- Weghorst 7
Everton
- Pickford 6
- Kenny 6
- Godfrey 6
- Branthwaite 6
- Mykolenko 7
- Doucoure 6
- Holgate 6
- Iwobi 6
- Gordon 7
- Calvert-Lewin 7
- Richarlison 8
Reaction
Sean Dyche:
“Sometimes mentality is hard. I’ve been down there, I know it’s hard.
“Sometimes as a team you maybe forget how to win a game. I said to our players at half-time, I don’t think they know how to win a game, away from home especially.”
Frank Lampard:
“All the teams around us have similar issues, whether it’s home or away. That’s the reality of where we are. Everything is a challenge for us now, whatever today’s result, to stay in this league. But there are nine games and 27 points to play for.
“We put ourselves in a position to win the game but we made mistakes that led to their goals and weren’t clinical enough.”
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