U23 REPORT: Stoke City 0 Burnley 1

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Clarets see their way through the fog to secure first away win with Lewis Richardson goal

2020-12-07T21:11:59.980Z

U23 REPORT: Stoke City 0 Burnley 1

Clarets see their way through the fog to secure first away win with Lewis Richardson goal

2020-12-07T21:11:59.980Z

The Clarets emerged from the fog at Stoke City’s training ground with a first away win of the season thanks to Lewis Richardson’s second-half strike.

With visibility severely restricted and conditions only just playable, the Clarets kept their eye on the ball sufficiently to extend their unbeaten run to four games and climb off the bottom of the table.

Seeing the opposite sides of the pitch took some doing and can’t have made life easy to pick out a colleague.

But the Clarets showed great resolve to keep a second successive clean sheet and continue their recent progress.

Stoke – who included Austrian internationals Kevin Wimmer and Moritz Bauer – had won their last two games in PL2’s second tier and were eyeing a slot in the play-off places.

U23 REPORT: Stoke City 0 Burnley 1 - Image 1

But they couldn’t make the most of a couple of first-half chances. And the Clarets’ improvement after the break was rewarded with Richardson’s well-taken winner with 68 minutes gone.

Burnley were forced into a defensive re-shuffle after just a quarter of an hour when Anthony Glennon picked up a knock and was replaced by Marcel Elva-Fountaine, with recent signing Richard Nartey moving inside to partner Bobby Thomas.

They gave little away with Mace Goodridge working hard in front of the back four on his return to duty following suspension and a late call-up to the first-team squad last weekend.

But Steve Stone’s men were still indebted to goalkeeper Lukas Jensen for making one sharp save to deny Ethon Varian.

And Potters’ skipper William Forrester then headed a free-kick just wide from the hosts’ other real opening of the first half.

U23 REPORT: Stoke City 0 Burnley 1 - Image 2

The Clarets hadn’t managed to create much but lifted the tempo after the break and within two minutes had gone close when Richardson glanced a header just wide from Goodridge’s corner.

Burnley kept probing and with just over 20 minutes to go forced the break-through as skipper Richardson led by example with his first goal since the opening day of the season as two of the Clarets' teenagers combined to great effect.

Recent arrival Owen Dodgson, like Richardson just 17, delivered one of several decent balls from the left-flank the Clarets’ captain timed his run perfectly to steer the ball past Robbie Hemfrey at full stretch.

Antony Gomez-Mancini almost scored a spectacular second as Hemfrey made a superb save to touch over the Frenchman’s stinging lone-range drive.

But with Stoke striker Christian Norton spurning the hosts’ best second-half chance, the Clarets had done enough to secure all three points from another battling performance which lifted them above Newcastle and off the foot of the second division.

Stoke City: Hemfrey; Macari, Forrester (C Taylor HT), Wimmer; Bauer, Porter (Ademambo HT), Malone (Malbon 71), Sparrow, Coates; Varian, Norton. Substitutes: Cooper, D Taylor.

Burnley: Jensen; Nartey, Thomas, Glennon (Elva-Fountaine 18), Dodgson; Taranis, Goodridge, Gomez-Mancini, Thompson; Mumbongo (Tucker 89), Richardson. Substitutes: Richter, Rain, Diallo.

Referee: David Richardson

Pictures: Stoke City FC