FULL TIME: Burnley 0-0 Watford
Well that was a hard watch. Boos ring around Turf Moor. A point doesn’t help either side much, but maybe come the end of the season, you never know. Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Everton | 20 | -11 | 19 |
| 17 | Norwich | 22 | -32 | 16 |
| 18 | Watford | 21 | -17 | 15 |
| 19 | Newcastle | 21 | -22 | 15 |
| 20 | Burnley | 19 | -11 | 13 |
Updated
90 min +1: Cleverley is booked for a late slide on McNeil. Somewhere in the multiverse, he’s walking, after that earlier challenge on Stephens.
90 min: Sweet mercy: there will only be two additional minutes.
89 min: Everyone squeezes into the six-yard box. A brief game of head tennis breaks out before the corner is cleared.
88 min: Cornet is about to take the free kick when the wind blows the ball away. Burnley reset, then Cornet blasts straight into the wall. The ball flies out for a corner.
87 min: Weghorst chests down to the left of the Watford D, and is clattered unceremoniously by Cathcart for his trouble. A free kick in a very dangerous position.
86 min: Cleverley’s low drive towards the bottom left is tipped around the post by Pope. One corner leads to another, and Burnley deal with the second one.
85 min: Femenia curls in high from the Watford right. King loops a header towards the top left, and Pope needs to concentrate hard to gather, the ball threatening to dip under the bar at the last.
84 min: Burnley haven’t scored in the last ten minutes of any of their matches this season. Now would be a good time to address that.
83 min: Joao Pedro makes way for Hernandez.
81 min: A Watford free kick out on the right. It’s lumped in, and Kucka sticks up a hand to bat it away, a very strange business. Burnley want him booked, but the referee isn’t interested.
80 min: Pieters has another opportunity to shoot, just inside the box this time, but hesitates. When he eventually pulls the trigger, his effort is blocked.
79 min: Pieters has a rake from 25 yards. It sails harmlessly wide left. Earlier in the move, Cleverley came through late on Stephens, and is lucky to escape censure, the referee forgetting about it having waved play on.
78 min: Burnley have turned it up a notch. Stephens busies himself down the right and nearly releases Rodriguez with a slide-rule pass down the channel. The ball goes out for a throw instead. It’s flung in, but only half cleared. Roberts curls in from the right, and Rodriguez flashes a header wide left from 12 yards. Much better from Burnley.
76 min: So that was relatively exciting. We deserved that, we’ve been more than patient.
74 min: Kamara’s touchline hugging run down the left earns another Watford corner. Burnley break from it again! Seconds later, the ball’s at Cornet’s feet, just to the left of the Watford D. He curls powerfully towards the top right. Foster parries well, but the ball breaks right to McNeil, who drives a low ball straight through the six-yard box, Rodriguez and Stephens unable to react in time to prod home.
72 min: From the Watford corner, Tarkowski strides clear on the counter. It’s a four on three situation. Tarkowski slips a pass to Weghorst, just to the right of the D. Weghorst whacks an awful first-time effort deep into the stand. Nothing comes from a very promising situation.
71 min: A long free kick sent into the Burnley box. Mee is forced to head behind. Corner for Watford. Femenia takes. Mee heads behind again ... though he very nearly planted that into the bottom-right corner of his own net! Somewhere in a parallel universe, Mee has scored two own goals tonight.
70 min: Kayembe is replaced by Cleverley.
69 min: Another long throw by Roberts. Weghorst flicks into the arms of Foster. Burnley are achieving very little.
67 min: Scrub that about the rain, by the way. It’s belting down again.
66 min: Sissoko strips McNeil of possession and Watford pick up the pace as he strides upfield. He slips a pass to Kucka on his right. Kucka drops a shoulder to come back infield and sends a shot rising over the bar. Then Watford come again, Pedro’s pea-roller gathered by Pope with ease. It’s a little better from Watford, and it forces Burnley into the first change of the evening, Rodriguez coming on for Lennon.
64 min: The rain’s eased off, so there’s that too.
62 min: This will be good viewing for fans of Newcastle, Norwich and Everton, at least.
60 min: Kucka crosses from the right. Pedro whistles a header straight at Pope from six yards. He should have scored.
58 min: Weghorst stands on Kucka’s foot. An accident. A yelp.
56 min: Mee makes a poor blind pass infield from the Burnley left, allowing Pedro to intercept and race at last man Tarkowski. He’s got King with him on the outside. He passes the ball too far right. King can only send a weak shot into the side netting. A great chance spurned.
55 min: Nothing’s happening.
Updated
53 min: Roberts flings another of those long throws into the mixer. Femenia volleys it clear, and the ball sails all the way back to Pope. The wind is swirling, but even so, dear me, they’re making hard work of this.
51 min: Pedro gets back up, and soon enough he’s slaloming into the Burnley box from the left. He can’t work space to shoot, but at least it was a decent enough run.
50 min: Pedro is down, unhappy at the attention of Tarkowski. There wasn’t a whole lot in it, but he takes his sweet time to get back up.
49 min: The rain continues to pelt down as the match settles back into its old dismal pattern.
47 min: Well, that’s better already. Farcical, but still better.
45 min 20 sec: Almost immediately after the kick-off, Weghorst breaks into the Watford box from the left. As he shoots, Kamara slides in to block, sending the ball looping miles into the sky and back down onto the bar and away!
Burnley get the match restarted. I’d say the second half can’t be any worse than the first, but to tell you the truth I don’t want to tempt fate.
Half-time entertainment.
HALF TIME: Burnley 0-0 Watford
Sema crosses from the left. The ball hits the arm of Roberts. That arm’s not in a natural position, flapping well away from his side. But the referee blows the whistle. VAR has a quick check nonetheless, but doesn’t pull the players back for a penalty. Burnley have got away with one there.
45 min: Kucka has a dig from 30 yards. His shot is always curling wide left. Then Stephens sticks his hand in Pedro’s face as they contest a high ball, and he goes into the book.
44 min: A few groans and murmurs around Turf Moor. Neither team is playing well, but Watford are the ones finishing the half stronger.
40 min: The resulting corner’s flicked on at the near post. Cue a scramble in the six-yard box. The ball pings off Mee’s shin and looks like heading in, but Lennon prevents the own goal by blocking and whipping clear. The nearest we’ve come.
Updated
39 min: Kamara slips a clever ball down the inside-left channel to release King into the box. King zips clear of Tarkowski, but he’s faced with a tight angle, and his low shot towards the bottom left is soft and easy for Pope to turn around the post.
38 min: There’s not a whole lot happening.
Updated
36 min: The rain continues to pour. Dyche and Hodgson, masochists both, stand on the touchline, hoods down. It’s a grim evening all right.
34 min: Lennon spins Kayembe down the right, and nearly pulls off a defence-splitting one two with Cornet. Not quite, the ball rolling through to Foster, but that was very easy on the eye, and therefore out of keeping with most of what’s gone before.
32 min: Kamara drives down the left but can’t get past Lennon. A corner will do, though. Kayembe’s delivery fails to beat the first man, and Burnley clear.
30 min: Better to miss chances than to create no chances at all, I guess, but both Weghorst and King will feel they should have done better.
28 min: Kucka dribbles hard down the inside-right channel, swivels, and fires a low cross across the edge of the six-yard box. King takes a fresh-air swipe when he surely should be scoring.
26 min: Weghorst is tutored in the ways of the Premier League, hesitating with the ball at his feet on the edge of the Watford box, Kamara sliding in to nick it off his toe. Seconds later, Burnley launch another attack, Lennon whipping in from the right. Weghorst winds his neck back, preparing to crash a header home, only for Cathcart to eyebrow it away.
25 min: Kucka does well to win the ball off McNeil out on the right. He strides towards the Burnley box and slips a pass down the inside-right channel for Pedro, who sends an aimless shot-cum-cross through the box and away from danger.
23 min: A long ball down the Burnley right. Cornet can’t get anywhere near it. Goal kick. Foster takes an age over the restart and receives pelters from the crowd as a result.
21 min: Not much point lying, this isn’t a great game.
19 min: King goes up with Tarkowski to challenge for a high ball. His arm flaps into the defender’s face, and he’s booked as a result.
18 min: This is better, though, as Pedro grooves his way down the inside-left channel and into the box. He’s just preparing to shoot, carefully cocking his leg, when Tarkowski slides in to challenge. Pedro goes down and wants a spot kick, but it’s a well-timed challenge.
17 min: Roberts and Sema wrestle to the left of the Burnley box. Sema is eventually penalised. Some rare time for Watford in Burnley’s final third, if nothing else.
15 min: Roberts again with another long throw. This one drops to Stephens, who shins a weak, looping volley over the bar.
13 min: Roberts launches a monster throw into the Watford box from the right. The ball is only half cleared, and Pieters meets it 25 yards out with a first-time volley. His shot is on target, but then deflected wide left. Nothing happens at the resulting corner. Burnley are on top.
11 min: Some classic route-one stuff here, as Pope launches long, Wieghorst flicks on, and Cornet sends a shot rising towards the top right. Foster turns the shot around the post, and nothing comes from the corner.
10 min: Watford draw a little of Burnley’s early sting with some sterile possession at the back.
8 min: Roberts drops a shoulder to make ground down the right. He slips infield to Lennon, who goes over in the box, though doesn’t claim a spot kick. He’s forced a corner. Foster plucks it from the sky. The rain continues to belt down.
6 min: Cathcart slips on the wet turf under a long ball. For a second, it looks as though the pratfall will allow Weghorst to break clear down the middle, but Femenia races back to cover and intercept, just in time.
5 min: Cornet makes a nuisance of himself down the inside-right channel, then rolls inside for McNeil, who aims a curler towards the top left. Always high, always wide. But this is a brisk, positive start by Burnley.
4 min: It really is a filthy night in Lancashire. The rain is almost horizontal.
3 min: Westwood curls it long. Cornet tries to make something out of the situation, just inside the box on the left, but can’t short his feet out for a shot. Both teams look in the mood.
2 min: Kamara pointlessly clatters Westwood out on the right wing. Free kick, and a chance for Burnley to load the box. Weghorst’s eyes light up.
1 min: Watford are on the front foot immediately. A cross in from the right. A throw from the left. The whistle eventually goes when King puts himself about with too much enthusiasm. Welcome back, Mr Roy.
Watford get this crucial relegation six-pointer going ... but only after the teams take a knee. The gesture is met with warm applause. There’s no room for racism.
No pre-match interview with Roy Hodgson, but never mind that, because the teams are out. Burnley in claret, Watford in yellow. It’s wet and windy at Turf Moor this evening. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Sean Dyche speaks to BT. “We’ve got games to catch up on. A big start today if we get a win. We defended well at Arsenal and that’s a good base to work from, we’ve got to add to the attack of course. All form is important. Our away form last season was strong. We’re looking for our home form to be right, of course.”
Burnley’s towering new striker Wout Weghorst makes his debut this evening. He’s one of three changes made to the team that drew 0-0 at Arsenal, with Maxwel Cornet and Dale Stephens also in. Jay Rodriguez drops to the bench, while Josh Brownhill and Matej Vydra miss out altogether.
Roy Hodgson makes four changes to the XI that did for Claudio Ranieri at Norwich a fortnight ago. Ben Foster replaces Daniel Bachmann in goal, while Christian Kabasele, Emmanuel Dennis and Tom Cleverley make way for Ken Sema, Craig Cathcart and Jurej Kucka.
The teams
Burnley: Pope, Roberts, Tarkowski, Mee, Pieters, McNeil, Westwood, Stephens, Cornet, Lennon, Weghorst.
Subs: Lowton, Cork, Hennessey, Rodriguez, Collins, Norris, Bardsley, Long, Thomas.
Watford: Foster, Femenia, Cathcart, Samir, Kamara, Kucka, Kayembe, Sissoko, Sema, King, Joao Pedro.
Subs: Ngakia, Troost-Ekong, Louza, Cleverley, Masina, Fletcher, Bachmann, Kabasele, Hernandez.
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire).
Updated
Preamble
This is a big relegation six-pointer. Look!
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | Everton | 20 | -11 | 19 |
| 17 | Norwich | 22 | -32 | 16 |
| 18 | Newcastle | 21 | -22 | 15 |
| 19 | Watford | 20 | -17 | 14 |
| 20 | Burnley | 18 | -11 | 12 |
No, it’s not looking good for the Clarets or the Hornets. But things can change quickly at the bottom. Just look at Norwich, who have clambered out of the relegation zone with back-to-back victories! Three points for the winner tonight, then, and they’ll be very much back in business. Kick off is at 6pm GMT. It’s on!
