Burnley 1-1 Leeds: Patrick Bamford grabs a late equaliser to cancel out Chris Wood’s strike as both sides remain without a win
- Chris Wood’s finish after 62 minutes gave Burnley the Lead at Turf Moor
- They frustrated the visitors for most of the afternoon and looked to win
- Patrick Bamford gave Leeds a deserved equaliser four minutes from time
There are some footballers who once the ball struck the net would have wheeled away to the home bench and with their fingers raised gestured to the opposition manager. Patrick Bamford is not that kind of boy.
His equaliser, four minutes from time, spared Leeds a defeat they deserved and would have been laced with self-justification.
Bamford had once, briefly, been a Burnley player. Sent to Turf Moor on loan from Chelsea in 2016 he scored no goals and suffered an abrasive relationship with Sean Dyche. Bamford had gone to Nottingham High School, where fees are more than £5,000 a term, and had an offer from Harvard University.
Leeds were frustrated throughout the afternoon at Turf Moor but got a deserved draw
The player thought Dyche considered him soft and uncommitted with too much to fall back on if he did not make it. The loan was quickly terminated.
For much of the afternoon, Bamford, who will join up with the England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Hungary, Andorra and Poland, had been ineffectual and roughly handled by Burnley.
Patrick Bamford looked to have an injury just before half time but he continued on
Early on, James Tarkowski wrestled him to the ground with the ball nowhere near either man while in first-half stoppage time, Ben Mee swept across and sent Bamford clattering painfully to the floor. He had struck the post before the interval but it was his own post as Leeds flapped around trying to clear a corner – the kind of routine they seldom looked comfortable with.
When slipped through by Kalvin Phillips, Bamford betrayed himself with a ludicrously heavy touch. Phillips’s frustration with his centre-forward was evident.
When Leeds had last come to Turf Moor in May, they had won 4-0 and Bamford had been brought off before the hour mark. There might have been a similar ending but Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to bring on Jamie Shackleton forced an equaliser that Leeds had seemed incapable of since falling behind. Bamford seized on a low cross to salvage a forgettable afternoon.
Last season Bamford justified all the faith that had been invested in him since boyhood with one proviso. His 17 goals were scored in almost exclusively empty stadiums. Was he one of those sportsmen who performed beautifully in training but whose statistics dried up amid the sound of a crowd? All you can say that is that the thousands who had crossed the Pennines were a few yards from him when he scored.
Bamford’s a late equaliser follows his first call-up to the England squad earlier in the week
Bamford was the second player of the afternoon to score against his former club. Earlier Chris Wood, had broken though to cap off a period of sustained Burnley pressure that had seen first Josh Bownhill and then Dwight McNeil shoot wide.
James Tarkowski had sent a header against Ilan Meslier’s bar, Leeds could not get the ball cleared. Matt Lowton took a deliberate full-back’s aim from a dozen yards out and Wood was cute enough to deflect it past Meslier from close range.
Chris Wood gave Burnley the lead with an instinctive finish after 61 minutes
Wood’s second half finish was his first goal of the season after scoring 12 in the last campaign
It appeared the New Zealander had given Burnley, who had lost nine of their previous 11 Premier League games, a decisive advantage. They game may have produced Burnley’s first point of the season but Dyche would have considered them two dropped.
Nevertheless, coupled with the signing of Lyon winger, Maxwel Cornet, who turned down an offer to go to Hertha Berlin to join Burnley on a five-year £15m deal from Lyon, this was a day for considerable optimism at Turf Moor.
As for his opposite number, Bielsa is still searching for a first league win of the season. Given how historically his teams have raced from the blocks, two points from three games is hardly Bielsa’s style. However, given that he once took his first club, Newell’s Old Boys to the final of the Copa Libertadores – the South American equivalent of the Champions League – after losing the first group game 6-0 at home, Bielsa has overcome worse stumbles.
Marcelo Bielsa’s men are still in search of their first win after the draw at Turf Moor