Burnley beat Middlesbrough 3-1 to close gap on Championship play-offs place
Burnley beat Middlesbrough 3-1 in an npower Championship encounter at the Turf Moor (Burnley) on Tuesday, April 19, 2011. The Clarets move to the 9th spot on the league table with the win and edge closer to a Championship play-offs place.
Eddie Howe made one change to the Burnley team that had won 2-1 against Swansea City recently. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nathan-Delfouneso-c27377. On the other hand, Middlesbrough made two changes from the 1-1 draw against Barnsley.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrew-Davies-c5908 respectively.
The visitors started the game positively and had a wonderful opportunity to score in the 7th minute of the game. Michael Duff fouled Scott McDonald just outside the box and the resulting free-kick was headed just wide of the target by Rhys Williams.
The hosts started dominating the game and created several opportunities, which were nicely saved by the Boro keeper. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paul-c29347 Smith made a fantastic save from Chris Eagles’ powerful strike from outside the box.
Burnley managed to open the scoring in the 21st minute of the game; a corner kick from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Danny-c10193 Fox was headed into the goal by Jay Rodriguez to make it 1-0 for the hosts. Barely a minute later, the Clarets doubled their advantage through Wade Elliott;
Eagles and Rodriguez made a lovely link-up play before the latter played the ball to Elliot, who completed a thumping finish to make it 2-0. Burnley extended their lead on the 37th minute mark; Fox’ delivery from corner kick was headed into the
goal with precision by Duff to make it 3-0 for the Clarets.
The hosts were in complete control of the game at this stage and Middlesbrough were only looking towards damage limitation. The hosts could have killed the game just before the half-time whistle but Elliot struck a shot wide of the goal after a mess in the
Boro box.
The second half started at the same pace for Eddie Howe’s team, as they came extremely close to scoring their fourth goal of the evening in the 51st minute. Eagles smothered past two defenders and struck a fierce shot which went centimeters over
the bar.
The intensity of the died down midway through the second half, as both the teams sat back and played a passing game. The visitors, however, managed to score a consolation goal in the 81st minute; Williams made a lovely run from the middle of the
park before striking a powerful shot, which rattled against the post and the rebound effort was tapped home by Andrew Taylor to make it 1-3, but it was all too late as Burnley completed an easy home win.
Burnley will take on Derby County in their next game on April 23, 2011, whereas Middlesbrough will take on Hull City the same day.
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