EPL: Southampton 0-1 Burnley

Sam Vokes strikes again

Sam Vokes’ late header sealed a smash-and-grab 1-0 win for Burnley at Southampton to put them sixth in the Premier League.

Sean Dyche’s men travelled to St Mary’s boasting two away wins already this season, having only won once on the road all last season.

And despite being on the back foot for vast parts of the game, Burnley managed to keep the Saints at bay and then grabbed the only goal on 81 minutes.

It moves the Clarets on to 19 points – level with Arsenal and Chelsea just above them – while the Saints are 13th on 13 points.

Following a poor quality opening it took until the 34th minute for a first effort of any note when Sofiane Boufal’s volley from just inside the area was pushed over by Nick Pope.

The Saints continued to press towards the end of the first half and Pope was again on hand to keep the Clarets on level terms as he got down to save a Nathan Redmond strike which went between two of his defenders on 42 minutes.

Southampton continued to look the more likely to score after the interval and Maya Yoshida almost broke the deadlock on 56 minutes when a corner dropped to him in the area, but again Pope was on hand to deny him with a decent save.

Despite the hosts doing most of the running, it was Burnley who took the lead with just nine minutes remaining. Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s cross picked out substitute Vokes and he guided his header down past Fraser Forster.