Burnley 1 Hull City 0

Burnley 1 Hull City 0

Ashley Barnes 50



Ashley Barnes, centre, celebrates putting Burnley 1-0 up against Hull City in the Premier League match at Turf Moor.

Finally. Finally Burnley have won a game. One hundred and ninety-six days since they last tasted victory, 11 games into a Premier League campaign when they had only led for three minutes, long after most outside Turf Moor came to the conclusion they were doomed, Sean Dyche’s deserving team reaped a reward for their considerable efforts.

Ashley Barnes made for a fitting match-winner. He was the sole signing to cost Burnley a fee during Dyche’s first 18 months in charge. He scored when the Clarets clinched promotion against Wigan in April and this was his first goal since the heady April day when the players gave Dyche the bumps.

Their subsequent struggles have suggested that going up, huge achievement as it was, brought only anguish as Burnley were the only team in the top seven tiers without a win. Not any longer.

Burnley had only held the lead in games for three minutes this season and no one had trailed to them since Chelsea in August. If that is an indication of their troubles, they ought to have eased. James Chester misjudged Scott Arfield’s first-minute ball forward. Danny Ings held off the Hull centre-back, spun and lobbed the advancing Steve Harper. With Paul McShane backtracking desperately to try and provide a presence in the six-yard box, the striker’s shot bounced just wide.

Hull had a still narrower escape when Ings next shot. The fit-again Harper, who replaced Eldin Jakupovic in goal, did superbly to repel the forward’s half-volley. His own defender came closer to scoring, McShane contriving to slice an attempted clearance that spun backwards. Robbie Brady was required to mount a desperate salvage operation to prevent the ball crossing the line.

Replays confirmed how close it was. As is often the case, Burnley had begun with admirable positivity, ploughing forward in search of a breakthrough that eluded them. It has been a recurring theme in season where their approach, like their enthusiasm, has been a constant.

Indeed, Ings’ ambitions have expanded, as he demonstrated when a penalty-area poacher made a remarkable attempt to score from 60 yards.. Harper had left his penalty area to take a free kick which Jason Shakell headed to Ings, lurking in the centre circle. The man crowned the player of the year in the Championship last season went for the spectacular but saw his shot drop wide of the unguarded net. It constituted far more of a threat than a subdued Hull side had managed before the break.

In an attempt to rouse his lethargic side, Steve Bruce planned a double substitution. Before Stephen Quinn and Gastón Ramírez could take the field, however, they were behind. Burnley got the goal their pressure merited when Kieran Trippier swung in a right-wing cross and Barnes climbed above Ahmed Elmohamady to head in.

When both Hull replacements entered, followed by Hatem Ben Arfa, Bruce had made all three changes and swapped system, all before the hour mark. It was a measure that backfired as Curtis Davies developed an injury, limped around at left-back and then hobbled off.

But as Hull overloaded their side with attackers, Abel Hernández offered a hint of his pedigree by drilling a shot narrowly wide. The atmosphere at Turf Moor became more fraught amid bouts of penalty-area pinball and hurried clearances. But Burnley hung on, they clung on and they won one. Eventually.