Burnley vs MK Dons 9th January 2021

 

Phil Bardsley bags winning spot kick as Burnley secure penalty shootout victory against MK dons at Turf Moor.

Burnley left it late to scrape through on penalties against league one MK dons and progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The two sides last met almost 4 years to the day when Burnley ran out 5-0 winners in the championship. However, on this occasion, the away side proved to be a much tougher match for the Premier League outfit.

Ashley Barnes had the first real chance of the game when he capitalised on Dean Lewington’s poor touch to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper in the opening two minutes.

But perhaps Barnes had too much time to think about the chance, as he chose to try and take the ball round Lee Nicholls who got a touch to the ball and it went behind for a corner.

The 31-year-old had another golden chance 13 minutes later when he found himself unmarked at the back post but was unable to squeeze his volley past Nicholls who pulled off an acrobatic save to keep the score at 0-0.

Despite Burnley’s early efforts on goal, it was Russell Martin’s side who took the lead through former Birmingham and Norwich striker Cameron Jerome. Jerome put The Dons in front on 28 minutes as he headed past debutant Will Norris.

Stephen Walker turned James Tarkowski inside out and crossed the ball into the box which was flicked on by Scott Fraser and Jerome was there to head the ball into the bottom corner.

The leaders were nearly reduced to 10 men after John Moss brandished a red card to defender Richard Keogh after he was judged to have denied Chris Wood a goalscoring opportunity by handling the ball in the air.

Though after viewing the VAR monitor Moss reversed his decision to a yellow, much to Keogh’s relief.

With time running out in the second half Robbie Brady swung in a freekick towards the head of substitute Joel Mumbongo who was making his first-team debut for The Clarets on his 22^nd birthday.

Mumbongo got on the end of Brady’s freekick to head the ball into the path of fellow substitute Mateg Vydra who scored with virtually the last kick of normal time.

Vydra looked buoyed by his goal and nearly gave Burnley the lead in extra time but his shot was saved by Nicholls who impressed all afternoon for MK Dons. Neither side were able to earn the win in normal time and so the game went to penalties.

Vydra stepped up to take Burnley’s first penalty but unlike earlier in the game, he missed his effort to give MK Dons an early advantage.

On-loan Stoke City midfielder Lasse Sørensen then had his penalty saved by Norris to draw the scores level. Norris then made it back-to-back saves as he kept out Ben Gladwin’s penalty to give Burnley the chance of going ahead.

Josh Benson then converted the following penalty which meant all Phil Bardsley had to do was score his attempt and Burnley were through. The full-back duly obliged and smashed the ball into the bottom left corner to send Sean Dyche’s men through to face Fulham at Craven cottage in the fourth round.

 

Russell Martin would have been pleased with how his side acquitted themselves against Premier league opposition, and it is certainly a benchmark they will be looking to maintain as the fixtures come thick and fast in league 1.

They face another cup fixture tonight as they come up against Northampton Town in the Football League Trophy.

Burnley will be hoping to use the momentum of the victory in the cup as they head into tonight’s hotly anticipated game in hand against Manchester United at Turf Moor.

The last time the two sides met Burnley came out on top defeating Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s men 2-0 at Old Trafford in January of last year, and a similar result this evening certainly wouldn’t go amiss.