Burnley were outplayed for much of this game yet still managed to leapfrog Middlesbrough in the table and become the first of the two promoted sides to reach 20 points thanks to a stunning late decider from Andre Gray.
For 80 minutes the game looked to have nil-nil written through it; after spending over an hour cancelling each other out in trying conditions both sides appeared ready to settle for a draw by the time Burnley managed to open up their opponents with a smartly executed bit of route one attacking. Middlesbrough had spent the previous 20 minutes looking marginally more likely to score, yet they were caught cold as Tom Heaton sent a free-kick up the middle, Sam Vokes won the header to nudge the ball forward and Gray struck with a perfectly executed right-foot volley for his first goal since August..
It had to be perfectly executed too, for Víctor Valdés had the shot covered until the ball squirmed out of his grasp at the last moment and crept across the line behind him. The only goal of an unmemorable game will therefore go down as a goalkeeping mistake, a gift from the visiting defence, yet Gray deserves a huge amount of credit for the venom and accuracy he packed into his shot. He could hardly have struck it any better, and after getting down low to reach the shot at the foot of his left-hand post, Valdés must have been as surprised as everyone else by the power Gray had been able to summon.
Both sides had chances in an untidy and fractious first half, though there was little actual football to rewar d supporters for braving a chilly Lancashire afternoon. Mostly that was due to a stiff breeze blowing the length of the pitch that made control difficult, though there was also a touch of needle between two teams who came up from the Championship together last season. Middlesbrough could have taken an early lead when Cristhian Stuani stole behind the Burnley defence to reach Antonio Barragán’s long ball over the top, but after getting himself into a good shooting position the forward missed the target with only Tom Heaton to beat.
Burnley took a while to hit their stride, with Boro’s neat, short-passing game helping them gain dominance in midfield, but gradually they pushed forward and managed to create a couple of scoring opportunities. Valdés had to scramble an Ashley Barnes shot around the foot of his post, Dean Marney had an appeal for a penalty turned down when Calum Chambers appeared to handle, though the closest the game came to a goal before the interval was a George Boyd shot from a free-kick on the edge of the area that Valdés appeared to misjudge in the air before pushing away. Boyd was Burnley’s liveliest attacker, beating Fábio da Silva twice in the move that led to the penalty shout, when Marney also appeared to be impeded in the act of shooting.
The second half opened with Craig Pawson managing to spot a Marney handball, conceding a free-kick on the edge of the area for illegally blacking a Marten de Roon shot, yet though Gastón Ramírez took an age to line up his shot all he came up with in the end was the gentlest of prods straight at Heaton. The Burnley goalkeeper had to work harder a couple of minutes later to keep out a Stuani header as Boro suddenly upped the tempo, with Stephen Ward perhaps the luckiest of 11 players cautioned in the game not to see red for a scything challenge on Barragán.
Gray joined him in the book shortly afterwards as Burnley began to find themselves pushed back into their own half, though when Vokes joined the fray for the final quarter the home forwards were able to have the last word. Boro must have left the field feeling mugged, but even they would have to acknowledge it was a heist of the highest class. Not that Aitor Karanka was feeling particularly generous about the manner in which the match was settled. “We knew they would play long balls, we’ve been working on stopping them all week in training,” the Boro manager said. “It is frustrating to lose in that way when we did a lot of good things. We’ve lost from one ball in a match we had under control.”
Sean Dyche did not see it quite that way, though the Burnley manager agreed it had been a close contest. “It was one of those games where you just want a chance to come your way, and Andre is the ideal player to have on hand when that happens,” he said. “He took his one chance very well. The ball dropped out of the sky and he’s not overthought it, he’s hit it instinctively with power and pace.”
