The home losses never stop coming

Just as we thought a first home win was on the cards, it all went wrong against West Ham United who, like the previous six teams to come to Turf Moor, went home with all three points with a 2-1 win against us.

This one was so much harder to take than those earlier home losses. In some of those games we had been outplayed and as difficult as it is when that happens, to be the better side, as we were yesterday, to be in front with less than five minutes of normal time remaining and still lose is even worse.

After all the recent rain, we were greeted with bright sunshine for this one and a distinct drop in temperature which meant a few layers were necessary. This is when the purchase of those claret and blue hooped socks in 2009 really looks a good idea. So, wrapped up in those and under the winter hat, I made my way down. I’d suggested in my Crystal Palace report that I might make my two mile journey on foot rather than via a lift of the bus, just a switch in the hope of bringing us better fortune on the pitch. I can confirm that I did walk there yesterday for all the good it did.

At around 2 p.m. and in close proximity to the ground, the teams were announced but none of our group could get any access on our phones but we did learn that Vincent Kompany had again named an unchanged team with the only alterations coming on the bench where Hjalmar Ekdal and Anass Zaroury replaced Hannes Delcroix and Wilson Odobert. A quick look at the West Ham team showed there was no Jarrod Bowen who had been replaced by former Burnley striker Danny Ings.

I thought we started brightly although it was West Ham who had the first effort on goal with a header although Tomáš Souçek didn’t make the best of it. It concerned us for a second or two but in the end was nothing more than a comfortable catch for James Trafford.

I’m not sure that West Ham offered any sort of threat for the remainder of the first half. It was a first half lacking in quality at times but only one team ever looked likely to break the deadlock and when the half time whistle blew for half time with the score still 0-0, it felt that we probably should have been going in with a lead.

Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson tried his luck with a right foot shot from outside the box in our first real attack but it was straight at goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. Soon afterwards we were so close to going in front. Sander Berge, who again was hugely impressive in our midfield, won the ball back and played in Jay Rodriguez on the right. Jay opted to play a low ball across that Zeki Amdouni was so close to reaching as he slid in at the far post.

We were so much on the front foot and just before the half hour we got ourselves a really good chance when Amdouni fed Luca Koleosho only for the wide man’s shot to be saved at the near post by Areola. It wasn’t a difficult save in the end but I think he’d have had little chance a few minutes later when a ball in from Berge was headed wide by Amdouni.

There had to be a talking point and there was around six minutes before the break when Koleosho went down as he past Vladimir Coufal after being played in by Josh Brownhill. Referee Sam Barrott, who refereed the game well, indicated a goal kick after the ball ran away over the line.

The main protests came from West Ham, not us, and it led to both Edson Álvarez and Nayef Aguerd. Were they daring to suggest that Koleosho had dived? If so, they were very definitely wrong on that score.

“VAR will sort it out,” I heard someone behind me say, probably unaware that it was Craig Pawson on duty at Stockley Park. We had the wait; the referee then indicated to West Ham to take the goal kick and then came the announcement of a VAR check for a penalty.

This was our 61^st league and cup game since we last won a penalty for a foul, that when Nathan Tella was fouled by goalkeeper David Butto at West Brom in September of last year. The wait was to go on, albeit for not much longer but should this decision have been overturned. There is contact, I think it’s a penalty, but it was not to be and this last piece of action ensured there would be no goals in the first half.

That was a first for us; it’s the first time we’ve not conceded a goal in the first half of a home game this season and things were to get even better for us very early in the second half.

With under two minutes of the half gone, Brownhill swept a ball out to Koleosho on the left. He moved forward before cutting into the box on the left hand side. There he twisted and turned past defender, looking for space to maybe get in a shot, when down he went. This time the referee didn’t hesitate in pointing to the spot and the culprit Mohammed Kudus, who looks to have trod on Koleosho’s foot, giving himself away with the obligatory hands up claiming he’s done nothing wrong.

This didn’t need much of a VAR check, not even for Pawson, and Jay Rod hammered the spot kick right down the middle to score his twelfth Premier League goal in Burnley colours, taking him clear of yesterday’s opponent Ings into fourth place behind Chris Wood, Ashley Barnes and Sam Vokes.

We knew they would come back at us but we looked comfortable when they did. Lucas Paquetá did fire one effort high and wide while Trafford was forced into one very comfortable save from Kurt Zouma.

A second goal in the game was looking much more likely to come at the other end and twice with breaks down the right we might have increased the lead, Areola saving well from Amdouni with the first one.

West Ham were the first to make changes, bringing on Said Benrahma and Divin Mubama for Álvarez and Ings. It’s over even years since Ings left Burnley and I have to say what I saw yesterday was nothing more than a shadow of the player he once was. He received some warm applause from the Burnley fans yesterday, and I have no issue with that at all, but it still leaves me totally baffled given the abuse Dwight McNeil received in our recent meeting with Everton.

Moyes needed to make changes, his team were losing. We then started to make changes and I do think that’s when it all started to unravel for us. The players coming off had made really positive contributions and each change I have to admit I found baffling, none more so than the last one that saw Josh Cullen come on for Guðmundsson. Within a minute, and I’m not pointing any fingers here at Cullen, we had lost our lead.

Kudus got the better of Charlie Taylor on their right and I’m not sure what Jordan Beyer was doing, but Kudus’ cross was eventually deflected into his own net by Dara O’Shea. That was the 31^st league goal we’d conceded this season and it felt like the worst. I know how I felt with the realisation that West Ham had equalised and the reaction among the crowd suggested everyone felt the same.

My next thoughts were that whatever happens, we must not lose it. We got to the ninety minutes at 1-1 and then saw the board go up for an extra seven, but it didn’t even take one of those minutes for West Ham to win it, this time a ball in from Kudus saw Souçek get the better of Rodriguez to volley home.

It was the cue for many home fans to depart, the whole place was flat and, knowing we were beaten again, it was just a matter of waiting for the final whistle which duly came after eight minutes of stoppage time.

This was a game we should clearly have won but one from which we weren’t able to get even a point. Even a draw would have lifted us off the bottom although with Luton beating Crystal Palace we couldn’t have climbed out of the bottom three.

Right now, we have to be thankful that we remain only five points behind Luton who are in the safe position of 17^th. At what point we can say we have reached crisis point but this season, so far, is proving to be worse than any of us could have ever thought with relegation now beginning to look the most likely conclusion, a really worrying state of affairs with only thirteen games played.

The last home defeat against Crystal Palace gave us the unwanted record of achieving the worst ever home start in top flight English football. This result has now equalled the overall league record of seven alongside Newport County who lost all of their first seven in the 1970/71 season.

We worked so hard to get back to the Premier League during last season, a remarkable season too, but the memory of that is being erased quickly from our minds because of this season which is proving to be far, far more difficult than we could have ever thought.

There is no such thing as a must win game in December but I think it’s fair to say that next Saturday’s home game against Sheffield United is very, very important.

The teams were;

Burnley: James Trafford, Vitinho, Dara O’Shea, Jordan Beyer, Charlie Taylor, Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson (Josh Cullen 85), Josh Brownhill, Sander Berge, Luca Koleosho (Anass Zaroury 81), Zeki Amdouni (Aaron Ramsey 73), Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Lawrence Vigouroux, Connor Roberts, Hjalmar Ekdal, Nathan Redmond, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Michael Obafemi.
Yellow Card: Jordan Beyer.

West Ham: Alphonse Areola, Vladimir Coufal, Kurt Zouma, Nayef Aguerd, Emerson, Edson Álvarez (Said Benrahma 63), James Ward-Prowse, Mohammed Kudus, Tomáš Souçek, Lucas Paquetá, Danny Ings (Divin Mubama 62). Subs not used: Lukas Fabianski, Aaron Cresswell, Pablo Fornals, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Maxwel Cornet, Angelo Ogbonna, Thilo Kehre.
Yellow Cards: Edson Álvarez, Nayef Aguerd, Vladimir Coufal.

Referee: Sam Barrott (West Yorkshire).

Attendance: 21,319.