Josh Cullen scored the only goal of the game to help Burnley produce one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Championship. Josh Cullen’s goal in the second half was all the traveling Clarets needed to retake the lead over second-place Sheffield United by three points. In a closely contested game, Stoke had their fair number of opportunities, but Cullen emerged victorious thanks to a comedic series of miscues. For the first time since 2018, Burnley won five straight league games to start the year 2023 in the first place. The team led by Vincent Kompany entered the match with eight victories in their previous nine league games, but the Potters made a stronger opening.
Campbell, who turned 23 on Wednesday, felt he had been given a late birthday present when the Kosovan goalkeeper misread a long ball, but the angle was too close. The Stoke striker received a faulty pass from Muric two minutes later, continuing his act of kindness, but Campbell was unable to have a good look at the goal. The pacesetters of the division naturally warmed up to the match and started to show off their attacking prowess against a team that has had trouble maintaining consistency this season. And when referee Keith Stroud did nothing when Manuel Benson was knocked down by a dozing Morgan Fox, manager Kompany was furious. It was the hosts who believed they had started the scoring despite their disparity in league standings.
After the second half got off to a sluggish start, Kompany looked to his bench for inspiration and brought on the Clarets’ leading scorer Jay Rodriguez and spark plug Anass Zaroury. And the pair appeared, with the table-toppers grabbing the lead in comical circumstances shortly after the hour mark. Harry Clarke’s goal-line clearance bounced off his own goalie before an alert Cullen poked the ball home as Benson’s deflected shot beat Jack Bonham.
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