Rodriguez at the double as Clarets put 3 past Fulham to
go through to 5th round of FA Cup
Burnley made a host of changes for their trip to Craven Cottage
with just Dwight McNeil and James Tarkowski retaining their places from
Thursdays win over Liverpool.
Despite this, it was The Clarets who started the brighter of
the two sides and they thought that they should have had a penalty 7 minutes into
the game.
McNeil sent in a cross which appeared to hit Fulham’s Michael
Hector on the arm, but the referee waved away these appeals and Burnley
continued to knock-on The Cottagers door.
That door was firmly smashed open by Jay Rodriguez who scored
his first goal in 19 games to give Burnley the lead on 31 minutes.
Rodriguez had the ball at his feet and played it wide to
Jack Cork who curled the ball towards the centre of the box. Burnley’s number
19 then finished off the move by heading the ball across goal and into the back
of the net.
Scott Parker must have had words with his side at half-time
as they came out with more energy in the second half and nearly equalised
through Joe Bryan four minutes after the break.
The former Bristol City man found space on the edge of the
area and hit a shot towards goal which Bailey Peacock-Farrell just about got a
hand to preventing Bryan from levelling the scores.
Peacock-Farrell was back in the cup squad after missing the
MK Dons tie due to Covid-19 protocols.
Burnley born Rodriguez looked keen to add to his tally
throughout the second half and did so when Matej Vydra was fouled in the
penalty area with 20 minutes to go.
The 31-year-old has fond memories of playing against Fulham
having registered his first senior goal against them at Turf Moor in 2008 to
book Burnley’s place in the fourth round of the league cup.
But on this occasion, he wasn’t prepared to stop at just the
one goal, blasting the ball down the middle to give Marek Rodak no chance and
Burnley now had a comfortable lead.
The striker let out a huge roar in his celebration with the
goal clearly meaning a lot to him and both he and Vydra have certainly asked
Dyche the question about whether they should be starting against Aston Villa.
Peacock-Farrell was called upon again with 13 minutes
remaining as he came off his line to keep out Aboubakar Kamara. The ball went
beyond the goalkeeper after his initial save but Tarkowski got there just in
time to stop it from trickling over the line.
Kevin Long was partnering Tarkowski at the back and he got
in on the action by adding a third goal for Burnley with nine minutes left to
play, meaning Fulham were now out of sight.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson hooked a cross towards the back post
which found its way onto the chest of Rodriguez. He then flicked it into the
path of Long who scored his first goal since 2018 to round off a superb
afternoon for Dyche’s men.
Fulham now have just 1 win from the last 10 games and sit 18th
in the Premier League table. Premier League survival remains the priority for
Parker’s team and they face Brighton up next with a game in hand against The
Seagulls.
The victory sees Burnley head into the 5th round
for the first time in four years as they face the winners of Bournemouth vs
Crawley.
The Clarets will be hoping to go one step further this time
around having fallen foul of a cup upset at this stage 4 years ago when they
were beaten by then non-league Lincoln City.
Sources
https://www.skysports.com/fulham-results
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/11/liverpool-burnley-premier-league-match-report
https://www.premierleague.com/players/3851/Jay-Rodriguez/overview
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| Glyn Kirk gettyimages |
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