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Post by Football News on Jan 10, 2015 17:35:24 GMT
Burnley 2 - 1 QPRScott Arfield 12 Danny Ings 37Charlie Austin 33 Pen As Queens Park Rangers made history, Burnley confronted their past and prevailed. QPR have specialised in unwanted achievements during the past few years, when the recent experience of the top flight has encompassed indignity and ignominy, and now their ineptitude on their travels means the record books need rewriting. As Burnley’s revival continued, QPR became the only team to lose their first 10 away games of a Premier League campaign. Along the way, they equalled an 89-year club record for consecutive defeats on the road. If that was a statistical subplot to a relegation six-pointer, the significance of Burnley’s win was reflected in the league table; they leapfrogged their visitors. Their current top scorer ensured his predecessor’s penalty mattered not. It felt inevitable that Charlie Austin, who both scored and was sent off when Rangers beat Burnley in December, would find the net on his return to Turf Moor. He bucked the trend of goalscorers who refuse to celebrate against their old clubs, evidently enjoying his 13th of the campaign. Yet when Burnley delivered their decider, their supporters taunted their former favourite with a chorus of “You’re not Danny Ings”. Ings was the matchwinner, exposing poor Rangers defending with typical persistence. Prolific as Austin was in Lancashire, Burnley have fared better with Ings as the cornerstone of their attack. Austin once served as a roadblock to Ings’ ambitions. The Rangers forward scored 28 times in his final season at Turf Moor while Ings managed just three. Without the older man, Ings became the Championship player of the year and is proving himself in the higher league. Austin was nevertheless much QPR’s best outfield player. He rattled the post two minutes after Burnley took the lead. He also won the penalty, slaloming past two defenders before being tripped by Dean Marney and drilling his spot kick past Tom Heaton. He remained the main threat of a second equaliser. But Burnley were brighter from the off. They led when Scott Arfield wriggled away from Joey Barton and Mauricio Isla, darted past a static Richard Dunne and angled his shot into the far corner of Robert Green’s goal. They regained their advantage when Ashley Barnes lofted a pass over the Rangers defence. Steven Caulker ought to have dealt with it but Ings capitalised on his diffident defending, nutmegged Dunne and beat Green with a scuffed shot that only just had enough power to prevent the sliding Clint Hill clearing it off the line. It was the first time this season Burnley had scored twice at Turf Moor. There ought to have been more. Green saved well from David Jones and Barnes, and brilliantly to deny Jason Shackell, and Barnes had a goal chalked off when Green went to ground. Ings struck the side netting but, with Heaton making an injury-time save to deny Caulker a leveller, their profligacy did not matter. Guardian
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