Burnley 0-0 Sunderland: Visitors hold on for rare point at Turf Moor

Burnley 0-0 Sunderland: Honours even at Turf Moor as resilient visitors hold on for rare point – while Vincent Kompany’s league leaders take another step closer to promotion

• Burnley went 14 points clear at the top of the Championship after the 0-0 draw
• The hosts dominated the ball but failed to break the deadlock versus Sunderland
• Tony Mowbray’s side climbed to 11th after the draw – six points off a playoff spot 

It only delayed the inevitable but Burnley’s gallop towards the Premier League was slowed a little by Sunderland.

Vincent Kompany’s side lacked much of their usual rhythm but inched closer to promotion – and the title – with a point that put them 17 clear of Middlesbrough in third.

Hopes of it all being done and dusted over the Easter weekend will hinge on other results now but the Clarets will want to get over the line against closest challengers Boro and Sheffield United in their next two fixtures.

Sunderland, who retain play-off ambitions of their own, kept the leaders at arm’s length for the most part and might even have nicked a win.

Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo was unlucky to see a deflected shot bounce back off the crossbar just a few minutes after coming on, with Josh Cullen’s sliding block making all the difference.

Vincent Kompany’s Burnley side went 14 points clear after their 0-0 draw against Sunderland

Resilient Sunderland fought hard for the point as Burnley dominated 70 per cent of possession

Replays showed Patrick Roberts, who teed Diallo up, was offside in the lead-up but there’s no VAR here.

MATCH FACTS

Burnley (4-2-3-1): Muric; Roberts, Harwood-Bellis, Beyer, Maatsen; Cullen, Brownhill (c); Benson (Vitinho 83), Tella, Zaroury (Gudmundsson 67); Barnes (Obafemi 79)

Substitutes not used: Peacock-Farrell (GK); Ekdal, Cork, Twine

Manager: Vincent Kompany

Booked: Cullen, Maatsen

Sunderland (4-2-3-1): Patterson; Hume, O’Nien, Batth (c), Gooch; Neil, Ekwah (Michut 64); Roberts (Lihadji 76), Pritchard (Ba 76), Clarke (Cirkin 88); Gelhardt (Diallo 64)

Substitutes not used: Bass (GK); Andreson

Manager: Tony Mowbray

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Attendance: 21,462

Sunderland had the ball in the net six minutes from time but Abdoullah Ba was stood offside when he nicked home Jack Clarke’s low ball from the left after the home defence pushed out.

The red smoke bomb set off in the away end in celebration proved a touch premature but Sunderland were worthy of their point.

Kompany spoke pre-match about the timing of his team’s 6-0 thrashing at Manchester City in the FA Cup being ‘impeccable’ as a brutal reality check.

He said the embarrassing scoreline carried a ‘shock effect’ so his players weren’t ‘on the beach sipping pina coladas.’

Mind you, judging by the number of passes that went astray early on here, perhaps they had been.

The possession-obsessed Clarets hogged the ball but on three occasions played it straight out and Ian Maatsen’s loose pass inside his own box almost led to a goal only for Jordan Beyer to save the day.

Sunderland’s Pierre Ekwah, making his first start, fashioned the game’s first chance, a volley on the edge of the box that he skewed wide.

It took the leaders 27 minutes to craft anything worthy of note. They forced a corner and when it was only half-cleared, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, playing for the first time in almost three months after injury, shot. Keeper Anthony Patterson was equal to it with a strong hand.

Sunderland weren’t seeing much of the ball but packed a punch on the counter. When Josh Cullen was pickpocketed in midfield, Roberts cut inside from the right and curled a shot that may have been sneaking in and required a save from Arijanet Muric.

From the corner, Dan Neil fired through a crowd of bodies but straight at the grateful Muric.

Nathan Tella (pictured) wanted a penalty after he was bodychecked in the area by Dan Neil

Clarets forward Ashely Barnes is tackled by Sunderland defender Danny Batth at Turf Moor

Burnley had several more gears to find. Nathan Tella wanted a penalty – amplified by the Turf Moor regulars – when bodychecked by Neil but referee Jarred Gillett wasn’t fooled.

Five minutes before half-time, the hitherto subdued Ashley Barnes suddenly found himself free inside the Sunderland box after Josh Brownhill’s inventive pass over his shoulder.

Barnes had time but his attempt at picking out the top corner side-footed but had too much elevation and cleared the bar.

Brownhill then traded passes with Manuel Benson before seeing his shot deflected over the top by Lynden Gooch’s flying block.

Tony Mowbray’s side climbed to 11th in the Championship table – six points off a playoff place

Tony Mowbray sentries team out with renewed vigour after the break, with Roberts twisting and turning before firing straight at Muric.

As Lancastrian drizzle fell, Burnley tried to find some slickness to their play. Tella’s tame low shot was never going to trouble Patterson.

Barnes was the man on the end of a nifty one-touch move involving Tella and Anass Zaroury but snatched at the chance as the full house under the Friday night lights tried to rally them.

Instead it was Sunderland who came closest to winning it only to settle for a draw.

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