A quick match recap of Burnley hosting Newcastle. While Burnley struggles in front of their home crowd, Newcastle’s road form is abysmal. The perfect makings for an entertaining match.

Before Kickoff:

Heading into this match, neither team were in good form. Both sides started the match even on points with 9 each. Burnley is coming off an inspiring away draw to Leicester, but they still remain winless in their last 5. Newcastle has not been fairing any better since the start of the season. This season has saw the worse ever start for the Magpies, going 11 matches without a win; however, they may have finally turned a corner, as they are unbeaten in the last 3 with 2 wins in a row.

Despite Newcastle starting to find their scoring boots recently, their away record doesn’t instill much hope leading into today’s bout. The Magpies have yet to win away from home, tallying 3 away draws so far this season.

Burnley is not in any better of a situation, winless at home in their last 5 attempts. Sean Dyche’s side seem terribly lost compared to last season. Even though they finished 16th last season, they spent the majority of the time in mid-table and gave the best sides a lot of trouble. That hard fighting never-say-die attitude cannot be found this season.

First Half

If the match delay was supposed to affect how the teams started, Newcastle didn’t get the memo. Regardless of the immediate goal, the scoreline didn’t really encapsulate how the match began. The Magpies started on a strong foot, but they weren't overly dominating, especially on paper.

If you solely looked at the match stats for the first half, you might actually think that it was Burnley up with 2 goals. Burnley out possessed, out passed, and dispossessed Newcastle by a fair margin. But as the saying goes, it is what you do with that possession and passing that matters.

Ben Mee (OG) 4' | BUR 0 - 1 NEW

The goal came from Burnley’s failure to clear the ball off a set piece, something of a trend tonight. The ball bounced around the mixer for a second before rolling out onto the edge of the box. I bit of a hopeless attempt from Fernández was all it took. An odd deflection off the foot of Burnley’s Ben Mee and the first goal was in.

Ciaran Clark 23' | BUR 0 - 2 NEW

For Burnley, the first goal wasn’t enough to teach them a lesson. Their failure to handle corners and clear set pieces has become their undoing. Remember when I mentioned Burnley last year a few paragraphs above. Well here’s a perfect opportunity to point out that Burnley conceding 2 set piece goals at home would have been unimaginable last season. Now they’ve done it twice in one half. They look completely lost with handling Newcastle corners.

Sam Vokes 40' | BUR 1 - 2 NEW

Burnley found a lifeline in the first half pulling a goal back before they went into the locker room. Ben Mee has been a bit of a poison chalice for Burnley on the night. He started the half scoring an own goal, but finished the half with earning an assist and helping get a goal back. If we are counting goal production alone, Ben Mee was the most effective. Unfortunately not for only his side.

Second Half

The second half started with Newcastle passing back and forth between their defenders, tempting Burnley to come out and press them. In the 1st half, it was Newcastle’s movement on set pieces that had Burnley defenders all out of sorts. Rafa’s halftime talk must have keyed on to that point as they continued to antagonize Burnley to open up and defend the entire length of the pitch.

Burnley did well to stop the rot of the early 1st half scoring. Their goal before half definitely helped them find focus. From the start of the 2nd half, Burnley was obviously looking to equalize quickly. While Newcastle attempted to open up Burnley with their passing, it was the home side’s desire for another goal that opened up the match.

Matt Ritchie 50' | Miss

At 70’ Burnley really started to knock on the door for their second goal. A set piece led to a nervy block shot by Dubravka, which in turn earned them a corner. Failure on Newcastle to clear the corner, led to yet another set piece. By now Newcastle were gripping at their narrow lead. More balls into the box resulted in shot after shot for the home side.

In the 80’ Newcastle bounced a shot off the woodwork after Perez opened up the backline with a beautiful through pass, almost sealing off the match. Burnley bent but did not break, keeping themselves in the match while they continued the hunt for the mythical equalizer. 85’ in and Burnley had done everything but score again.

Newcastle wasted opportunity after opportunity in the second half. Richie was the guiltiest of them all, missing an absolute sitter. At multiple points it looked like Burnley were going to punish Newcastle’s wastefulness. However not for a lack of trying, they couldn’t finish in front of goal.

While Newcastle stole minutes off the clock, Burnley continue to push the agenda, taking it down to the absolute last second. Joe Harts last minute offensive antics weren't enough, and Newcastle got their first home win of the season while Burnley continue to struggle at home, making it 6 matches now without a home win.

Full Time | BUR 1 - 2 NEW

Source: whoscored.com

I had a lot more fun with this match than expected. Heading into it, neither side offered much to get excited about. The 30 minute match delay certainly didn’t help build any last minute hype. But I was totally wrong. Both teams came out positive. We got 3 goals and a lot of back and forth attacking football. Also, shout out to everyone who was in the Scorum Writers telegram channel during the match. It was fun chatting about it. Would love to see this happen more often. Happy I tuned in for today’s action.

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