Burnley were dead and buried. Trailing 2-0 to the £48m striker Jørgen Strand Larsen’s first goals for Crystal Palace after half an hour, it looked inevitable that Scott Parker’s side would match their club record 17-match winless run in the top flight that dates all the way back to 1890.
Yet after all the misery since their last victory in October, everything changed in the space of seven scintillating minutes just before half-time. Burnley hit back through Hannibal Mejbri, Jaidon Anthony and an own goal from Jefferson Lerma to record only a second away win of the season since being promoted. It keeps alive their slim hopes of survival, although Parker will know it will take several more results like this to conjure up the greatest of escapes.
“It means a lot – we’ve been through some real soul searching and tonight was everything that I have preached to this group,” said the Burnley manager. “That game will live with me for a long time – when the doubters were there and the adversity was against us, we managed to pull out a result which was incredible.”
For Palace, it was a stark reminder that they are not out of the woods yet despite ending their own 12-match winless run with a cathartic victory over Brighton on Sunday. Oliver Glasner’s side appeared to be coasting towards only their third home win in the league this season that would have eased their own relegation concerns but were guilty of allowing their opponents back into the game with sloppy defending.
The decision not to bring in a replacement for their captain Marc Guéhi after selling him to Manchester City last month could come back to haunt them. “I didn’t recognise my team,” said Glasner, whose side have gone eight matches without a league win at Selhurst Park. “We had no one on the pitch to calm everyone down when things started going wrong and they started doing some crazy things.” The omens weren’t great for Burnley. Parker had never won a league match in London as an away manager and their team bus got caught in heavy traffic, causing kick-off to be delayed by 10 minutes. “It wasn’t ideal but maybe we should have a few more of them,” he added.
Despite struggling in front of their own supporters this season, Palace had not lost here to a promoted side since 2017 – a 4-0 defeat to Sunderland. There seemed to be little chance of that sequence ending when Strand Larsen hammered home a sumptuous through ball from Adam Wharton to open the scoring. Strand Larsen’s diving header that guided home the second from Lerma’s cross after a mistake from Kyle Walker appeared to have made Burnley’s task impossible.
But the visitors gave themselves a lifeline when the outstanding Mejbri beat Dean Henderson with an excellent finish five minutes before half-time and then they found themselves ahead at the break. There was a huge question mark over whether Lesley Ugochukwu handled the ball in the centre circle before finding Anthony for the equaliser but there was no doubt about his finish into the bottom corner. The unfortunate Lerma could then only divert the ball into his own net after a header from Bashir Humphreys had been saved by Henderson. Palace left the pitch to a smattering of boos..
They were sent out early for the second half having no doubt been on the end of some choice words from Glasner. But despite the introduction of their £35m forward Brennan Johnson, signed last month, Palace struggled to break down a stubborn Burnley defence. Daichi Kamada missed the target from a Daniel Muñoz cross when he should have scored before Martin Dubravka’s brilliant save denied an acrobatic Ismaïla Sarr in stoppage time.
But it was Burnley’s small band of delighted travelling fans who were able to celebrate a rare victory that Parker will hope can revive their fortunes.
