The weather was at the forefront of the minds of both managers after Burnley missed the chance to go top of the Championship with a 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough.
The Clarets needed a fine 37th-minute equaliser from Connor Roberts to cancel out Anfernee Dijksteel’s early strike for Boro as rain and wind, the precursor of Storm Darragh to come, battered Turf Moor and played its part in a match which could have gone either way between two promotion hopefuls.
Boro boss Michael Carrick, having started his press conference by asking if anyone had a towel handy, said the conditions had been key to Roberts’ 25-yard strike, which seemed to catch out goalkeeper Seny Dieng as it looped over him.
Burnley had been behind on the scoreboard but on top in the game without finding a way past Dieng, but Roberts’ decision to shoot from range did the trick.
“Maybe it caught us by surprise,” Carrick said. “I think all the defending was in the box or around the box, and we closed the spaces over a period of time, so (the shot) was a bit of a surprise. I suppose we put it down to the weather.”
Burnley could have gone above Sheffield United if they had made it five straight wins with victory here, but after conceding for the first time in 501 minutes they had to settle for a point. Again, Scott Parker could point to the weather in analysing the game.
“I thought we were well worth three points tonight,” he said. “The conditions definitely played a large factory in tonight’s game for both teams really. You could see that in the flight of the ball and the winds and the rain. They were tough conditions.”
Boro’s 13th-minute opener was a poor one from Burnley’s perspective. Dijksteel had charged forward from his right-back position, and after laying the ball up managed to slip away from Bashir Humphreys to have a clear run at goal when played in by Dan Barlaser.
It was a surprising lapse from a side who had kept five clean sheets in a row, and 12 in the league this season.
“They scored a goal against the run of play and that was probably down to us a little bit,” Parker said. “Certainly it’s something we need to look at in that we gifted that a little bit in terms of the way we positioned ourselves.
“As a coach you’re always looking at certain moments and seeing the learning from it. This is the first time the team has conceded in a long time so it’s what sort of reaction we got. I got a reaction from a group of men that was nothing short of superb.”
Roberts was at the centre of that. Whether wind-assisted or not, his goal lifted Burnley and the Wales right-back was at the heart of so many good Burnley moves as he got forward regularly.
“Connor Roberts is an international player who has been around this for some time, he brings large parts of his experience and also his quality,” Parker said. “As he has been for the majority of this season, he was very good tonight.”
