London club, Fulham, on Monday night were relegated from the English Premier League after a 2-0 loss at home to Burnley.
Fulham joined demoted West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United in the second-tier Championship ahead of next season.
The slim hopes of Scott Parker’s side beating the drop went up in flame following first-half goals from Burnley’s Ashley Westwood and Chris Wood.
Coming into the game, the Fulham manager responded to a 2-0 derby defeat by Chelsea by recalling Aleksandar Mitrovic and Kenny Tete to his starting XI.
His counterpart, Burnley boss, Sean Dyche, by contrast made no changes to a side that lost 2-1 at home to West Ham last week.
The away team was twice denied early by Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, before they went ahead in the 35th minute when Westwood, found at the back post by Matej Vydra, slotted the ball into the net.
Burnley then doubled their lead a minute before the break when Wood let fly with a shot into the top corner.
Goalkeeper Areola appeared fortunate to stay on the field in the 67th minute when, after he had raced out his area, the ball appeared to come off the keeper’s arm as Vydra tried to go around him.
However, there was no VAR intervention, with officials deciding Areola had escaped a red card because the presence of a covering defender meant there had not been a denial of a goalscoring opportunity.
The Video Assisted Referee is not empowered to recommend a booking, hence the lack of even a yellow card.
Interestingly, if that was a fortunate break for Fulham, their luck ran out at the other end of the pitch in the 70th minute when Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s shot beat Burnley keeper Nick Pope only to bounce clear off the underside of the bar.
AFP
