LONDON: Burnley gave their fans an early Christmas present with just their third victory of the Premier League season when they shocked Fulham 2-0 on Saturday as Vincent Kompany’s side moved off the bottom of the table.
In a game marked by Rebecca Welch becoming the first female referee to officiate a Premier League match, Fulham dominated the first half but second-half goals from Wilson Odobert and Sander Berge saw Burnley move up to 19th with 11 points.
The win will give Burnley’s survival hopes a shot in the arm while Fulham failed to move into the top half of the table, with Marco Silva’s side dropping to 12th after a second straight defeat.
Fulham took their time to get going but once they did Burnley keeper James Trafford was kept busy, making saves from Harry Wilson and Joao Palhinha while Alex Iwobi fired just wide — all in the span of two minutes.
There was no respite for Trafford and his defensive line, who were called into action several times in the first half as the home side’s players lined up to shoot.
At the other end, Trafford’s counterpart Bernd Leno was rarely called into action as Burnley struggled to mount attacks and failed to have a single shot on target.
But Burley turned the tables less than two minutes after the restart when they won the ball back from Fulham and Odobert played a quick one-two pass with Lyle Foster before curling an effort from range past Leno to make it 1-0.
A shell-shocked Fulham looked to recover but Burnley delivered the knockout blow 19 minutes later.
Berge picked up the ball at the half line, stormed through the middle and though he had support, he saw the lack of any challenges as an invitation to pull the trigger from over 20 yards out as Leno was beaten yet again. – Reuters
