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Post by Football News on Sept 28, 2016 3:39:42 GMT
Burnley 2 - 0 Watford
Steven Defour inspires determined Burnley to victory over Watford Home team scorersJeff Hendrick 38 Michael Keane 50 It required a relentless pursuit and Sean Dyche’s powers of persuasion to convince Steven Defour to leave Belgium for Burnley in the summer but the effort, and the club-record £7.5m paid to Anderlecht for a player once coveted by European heavyweights, has paid early dividends. Defour, desire and determination shaped Burnley’s second Premier League win of the season. Watford were second rate in every respect. The Belgium international still has the letter he received from Sir Alex Ferguson shortly after injury ruined his hopes of Champions League football with Standard Liège and, as it later transpired, a move to Manchester United. Now 28, he still possesses the ability and energy to punish teams as weak as Watford – unrecognisable from the side that triumphed over United last time out – and a quality Burnley lacked on their last appearance in the Premier League. The midfielder’s assists for Jeff Hendrick and Michael Keane brought Dyche’s team deserved victory and means he has been involved in four of his new club’s five goals this term. “He is still learning and adapting to the Premier League but he is definitely a good player otherwise we wouldn’t have brought him here,” the Burnley and former Watford manager said. “He, Jeff and Johann [Berg Gudmundsson] have all been brought in for a reason. We haven’t got the budget to bring in players, move them on and have a squad of 30. Every player we have brought in is important. Steven has that extra belief from playing for Belgium and in big games. He has a strength of character and that rubs off on others.” Burnley were again solid defensively at Turf Moor, where they have conceded five goals in 17 home matches and became the first team this season to shut out Walter Mazzarri’s side. They were also confident and strong in midfield – “They bullied us,” Troy Deeney admitted – and just needed an attacking threat to complement a dominant first-half performance. Hendrick’s headed breakthrough was just reward for their efforts and patience. Dyche’s side have struggled in front of goal on their return to the top flight and their attacking options were reduced by the absence of Andre Gray, starting a four-match ban for making homophobic comments on Twitter four years ago. “We know the tweet was unacceptable,” the Burnley manager said. “But we are very disappointed with the four-game ban. Andre was the first one to come straight out and apologise. He misses 12% of our games now. It is a hard one to take, simple as that.” Watford were overrun in midfield and had problems from the outset with the quality of Defour’s set pieces, his vision and the power of Gudmundsson on the right. Their strangely subdued response was a poor return for the 1,415 in the away section for a Monday-night fixture and Mazzarri vowed to hold talks with his players in training on Tuesday. George Boyd had almost opened the scoring from a Defour corner, Heurelho Gomes producing a fine save, when more weak defending enabled Burnley to profit from the same source shortly before the interval. Watford were incensed at the referee Mike Jones’ decision to award the corner, arguing for an offside in the build-up and that the ball was out of play when Dean Marney crossed from the right. José Holebas picked up a booking for dissent but the officials appeared to call both correctly. It was Holebas’s job to mark Hendrick when Defour’s corner sailed into his penalty area but he allowed the Republic of Ireland midfielder a free header which he sent into the far corner. The Republic assistant manager Roy Keane’s decision to attend the game was vindicated. Mazzarri introduced Camilo Zúñiga for Craig Cathcart at the interval but the visitors’ defence continued to afford Defour too much space and struggled against his precise crosses. Deeney hinted at an overdue show of urgency from Watford when he broke into the Burnley box and forced a decent save from Tom Heaton, but the recovery did not materialise. Burnley responded immediately to Deeney’s show of intent and forced a corner on the left. Watford dealt with the initial cross from Defour but were found badly wanting when he gathered the loose ball, looked up and swept a perfect delivery towards Keane. The former Manchester United graduate, a member of their FA Youth Cup-winning team in 2011 alongside Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard, simply wanted it more than any player in white and Mazzarri looked aghast as Keane headed beyond Gomes in the absence of one meaningful challenge. “This was a game that had to prove we could do better than we played against Manchester United,” the Watford coach said. “We wanted continuity and we didn’t get it so I will speak with my players.” Guardian
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