Burnley 3-1 Brentford: First-half flurry sees Sean Dyche’s side secure first Premier League win of season

Report and free match highlights as Burnley score three first-half goals for the first time in the Premier League at Turf Moor; Chris Wood, Matthew Lowton and Maxwel Cornet all on target as Burnley end 12-game winless league run and Brentford lose first away match of campaign

By Michael Hincks

Saturday 30 October 2021 18:16, UK

Burnley secured their first Premier League win of the season in style as a 3-1 victory at Turf Moor saw Brentford finally taste defeat away from home.

The hosts shot out of the blocks with Chris Wood scoring inside four minutes, and they were then denied a second when a tight offside call ruled out Maxwel Cornet's effort (15).

Matthew Lowton's header (32) eventually doubled their lead just before Cornet continued his fine form with a superb strike (36) that saw Burnley score three first-half goals at home for the first time ever in the Premier League.

Saman Ghoddos scored a stylish consolation for the visitors (79), but Burnley held their nerve to end a 12-game winless league run that had stretched across two seasons, while for Brentford it is a first away loss this campaign and now three league defeats on the spin after losing at home to Chelsea and Leicester.

How the teams lined up | Match stats
Premier League fixtures | Results | Table
Get Sky Sports | Live football on Sky Sports

How Burnley ended the drought

"This is the best l have seen Burnley play," Sue Smith said on Soccer Saturday at half-time, and it was hard to disagree going by their performances so far this season.

A dream start for Burnley saw them take the lead after just four minutes when Lowton's long ball evaded Ethan Pinnock and found Wood for the opener.

Brentford were all at sea at the back, and could have been trailing by two after 15 minutes, but a marginal offside call saw Wood flagged before he flicked the ball on for Cornet.

On what was a tough opening 45 minutes for Alvaro Fernandez, who was deputising for the injured David Raya, the Brentford goalkeeper then came out but then retreated as Lowton met Charlie Taylor's cross to head in Burnley's deserved second.

Download the Sky Sports Scores App: Apple | Android
The UK's No 1 scores app: Find out more

Four minutes later, it was a third for Burnley, with Cornet scoring the pick of the bunch when curling in a sumptuous effort from the edge of the area after a flowing team move for his fourth league goal of the season.

After the break, Burnley appeared happy to sit on their three-goal lead and put the onus on Brentford to make it a contest.

The visitors did get on the scoresheet to end Burnley's hopes of a clean sheet, with substitute Ghoddos practically horizontal when his scissor-kick strike found the bottom corner.

The goal was the beginning and the end of the comeback, however, and cheers erupted around Turf Moor at full-time to celebrate a first league win of the season at the 10th time of asking.

What the managers said...

Burnley boss Sean Dyche: "The players deserve it. The performances have not been far away, I've said it all along. Sometimes I'm a broken record. Today we had that clinical edge.

"The first half we took the game on, the energy and finishing was really good. Second half we got nervous, but the fans were terrific and they've been standing by us.

"There was a real determination. Cornet has hit the ground running, and Lowton's getting up there for a goal. You want that openness, today that was on show."

Brentford boss Thomas Frank: "Congratulations to Dyche and Burnley - a well-deserved win. It was almost written in the stars, Dyche's ninth year anniversary today. Of course I hate losing, I don't want to, but he deserved that win.

"We had one bad half against West Ham, and this is our second bad half in the Premier League. We know what Burnley are good at, and they showed that in the first half. Our normal standard of defending is normally much better than how we executed today.

"It's football. Burnley tried to do what they do very well, and we tried to defend it. Even when you know what they do, sometimes you concede a goal. If it's a perfect ball, you can't do anything. It doesn't help they scored after four minutes."

Opta stats

This was Burnley's first home league win since January against Aston Villa, ending a 14-game winless run at Turf Moor.
Brentford have suffered three consecutive league defeats for the first time since February, with the Bees having lost just two of their previous 22 league games before this current losing run.
Burnley scored more than one goal in a home Premier League game for the first time since January, when they beat Aston Villa 3-2. They hadn't scored more than one in any of their previous 14 at Turf Moor in the Premier League before today.
Maxwel Cornet has netted four goals in five Premier League appearances for Burnley this season, having only netted twice in 36 league appearances last season for Lyon in Ligue 1.
Since making his Premier League debut for Burnley in August 2017, Chris Wood has scored 18 more league goals than any other Clarets player (48 in total).
Matthew Lowton scored only his fourth Premier League goal in 216 appearances, netting two for Burnley and two for Aston Villa. This was Lowton's first home Premier League goal since September 2012 against Swansea for Aston Villa.