Burnley are relegated despite Danny Ings sealing win at Hull
Hull 0 - 1 BurnleyDanny Ings 62
Danny Ings salutes the Burnley fans after his team were relegated from the Premier League, despite his winning goal at Hull.
Burnley produced a goal at long last and then a fighting victory, but it was all too late and relegation was confirmed by Leicester’s result against Southampton. The visitors’ first goal since the one that beat Manchester City in mid-March was enough to see off an anaemic-looking Hull, who badly needed a result here to allay relegation worries of their own. They never looked like getting one, barely showing any fight even when behind, and fell into the bottom three as a result with Tottenham and Manchester United their remaining opponents.
The possibility now exists that both these teams will end up in the Championship next season, which is more or less what the east Lancashire fans spent the afternoon telling their counterparts from East Yorkshire.
“No regrets. We have learned a lot this season and we have to keep moving forward,” Sean Dyche said. “There is disappointment. We all want to stay in the Premier League, but we gave it a good go.”
That is more than Steve Bruce was able to say of his players. “We didn’t perform. We were nowhere near the level we should be in all departments,” the Hull manager said. “Every time we come to a game we are expected to win we seem to struggle and now we have made life very hard for ourselves.”
Hull had marginally the better chances in a nervy and undistinguished first half, though that is not saying a great deal. Burnley struggled to contain Stephen Quinn and Robbie Brady, who interchanged neatly on the left wing without managing to put in a telling final ball. When Brady did get a decent cross in midway through the first half it found Ahmed Elmohamady in space at the far post, only for the winger to fail to keep his header on target. Brady also hit the bar with a free-kick from 25 yards out 10 minutes before the interval, by which point it appeared set pieces might be the best route to goal for both sides.
Burnley hardly threatened at all for the first half-hour, then Ashley Barnes had two opportunities for headers in quick succession. Stephen Harper made a comfortable save from the second, but Barnes really should have done better with the first, heading over the bar from the six-yard line when Graham Jones’s corner found him unmarked.
The travelling fans at least appeared ready to accept their fate cheerfully. “You’re going down with the Burnley,” they chanted while the game was still scoreless, as yet another Hull attack broke down on the edge of the area. Sunderland’s win at Everton in the early kick-off had put another struggling side out of Burnley’s reach and though the matter will not be put to the test Dyche and his players must have been aware as they surveyed the half-time scores that even nine points from their last three games would not guarantee survival.
Tom Huddlestone saw a shot saved at the start of the second half as Hull began to show a little more urgency, before Barnes went close, just not close enough, to getting a decisive touch to a Matty Taylor cross at the other end. Danny Ings beat James Chester to make a determined run into the box a couple of minutes later, creating a promising shooting chance but going to ground in search of a penalty that never came.
Bruce decided he needed to be more proactive after an hour, sending on Nikica Jelavic at the expense of Paul McShane, a central defender. That might have cost Hull, for having reverted to a back four Michael Dawson was off the field receiving attention to a facial injury when Ings put Burnley in front.
George Boyd, formerly of Hull, stopped a ball going dead and surprisingly stayed onside, and with the depleted defence expecting a whistle his cross was not dealt with quickly enough to prevent Ings joining in the pinball and beating Harper with a firmly struck shot. The Burnley fans repeated their relegation chorus, just to show they were not naïve enough to imagine celebrations were in order, before adding an amusing “How crap must you be, we’ve just scored a goal?” for good measure.
Bruce decided another striker might now be necessary and replaced Sone Aluko with Abel Hernández, who immediately brought a save from Tom Heaton with an unconventional backheel. There was little else he could have done, standing over the ball with his back to goal a couple of yards out, but Heaton did well to read his intentions and hold the effort on the line.
The goalkeeper did not get anywhere near as close to Hull’s next effort, another solidly struck free-kick from Brady that again smacked his crossbar. Hull were not exactly unlucky, they simply did not create enough from open play to deserve anything from the game, though Brady could hardly have come any closer to scoring. The home side left the field to muted boos. Muted in part because many Hull fans had already begun to head for the exits.
Guardian
