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Marcus Edwards climbed off Burnley’s bench to score a debut winner as Southampton tumbled out of the FA Cup 1-0.
Edwards, the former Tottenham youngster who joined the Clarets on loan from Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon on deadline day, pounced 13 minutes from the end of an attritional encounter on the south coast.
With the Premier League’s worst team meeting Europe’s meanest defence, goals were always going to be hard to come by but Edwards at least spared the 15,000-odd supporters who bothered to turn up at St Mary’s the prospect of extra time.
The Clarets, revelling in the ‘Boring Boring Burnley’ tag bestowed on them by opposition fans this term, kept yet another clean sheet – their sixth in a row in all competitions, their 10th in 11 matches and their 23rd of the season.
The criticism from their own supporters remains that they do not score many goals, either, but they did threaten to take the lead inside the opening two minutes.
Manuel Benson rounded Saints keeper Alex McCarthy but his shot was cleared off the line by the hosts’ new Brazilian defender Welington Santos.
Burnley’s defence, which has conceded only nine league goals this season – fewer than any team in Britain and less than any in the top two leagues in Spain, France, Germany and Italy – was almost breached after a mistake by back-up goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky, whose attempted clearance went straight to Ryan Manning.
But Hladky, in the starting XI as one of eight changes made by Clarets boss Scott Parker, recovered well to block Manning’s shot, with Joe Worrall completing the clearance.
Burnley should have gone ahead when Jonjo Shelvey’s long ball was flicked on by Ashley Barnes into the path of Jeremy Sarmiento.
The winger cut inside Saints defender James Bree only to fire his shot too close to McCarthy.
Just before the interval, teenage Southampton winger Tyler Dibling, back from injury, jinked his way into the penalty area only to pull his low drive into the side-netting.
Dibling was at the heart of Southampton’s first attack of the second half, laying the ball off to Manning whose effort from 12 yards was well blocked by Hladky.
Mateus Fernandes blazed a shot high over the crossbar and Kamaldeen Sulemana’s promising run ended when he steered wide of Hladky’s dive and the far post, but in truth Southampton never really looked like scoring.
However, with another 30 minutes looming, Edwards mercifully broke the deadlock after Hannibal Mejbri’s hook across goal deflected into his patch for a simple finish as Championship promotion chasers Burnley’s unbeaten run stretched to 20 matches.
