Soccer
Nicky Hayen hails Burnley ‘courage’ in hitting back to draw with Middlesbrough
Burnley head coach Nicky Hayen felt his team had to overcome their own fear to earn a 1-1 draw against Middlesbrough at Turf Moor.
The Clarets, still without a league win this season, gained a point thanks to Ugo Raghouber’s first goal for the club, steered in from the edge of the penalty area in the 54th minute after he took on Zeki Amdouni’s pass.
Middlesbrough had gone in front in the 23rd minute with a fine goal from Aidan Morris – his first after more than two years at the Riverside Stadium. He swept in from 20 yards after being teed up by his fellow American Sebastian Berhalter.
Morris hit a post with another long-range drive just before half-time, while team-mate Riley McGree steered wide on the stretch from six yards after Will Lankshear had driven the ball across goal.
Burnley, booed off at half-time, were much improved after the break and after they equalised, Chelsea loanee Dastan Satpayev twisted past defender Alfie Jones and forced a wrongfooted Radek Vitek to save with his trailing foot, while substitute Aaron Ramsey drove wide with 12 minutes left.
Hayen said: “We started with good intentions in the first 10 minutes. But then they scored the goal and then there was a certain fear in the team.
“We were dropping back. We were not putting pressure in the right way. That’s something we changed in the second half.
“Then you see that we play with a lot more courage and then we felt after that goal with the support of the fans that you can change that game.
“But I have to be fair also, physically we’re not there yet at the moment because we have also new signings who didn’t have a proper pre-season, who didn’t play a lot of friendly games.”
Burnley’s build-up to the game was disrupted by the departure on transfer deadline night of last season’s leading scorer Zian Flemming, sold to Ipswich for £20million, with no replacement coming in.
Hayen added: “Yeah, it’s really unfortunate, of course, because Zian was an important asset for the team, also for the club.
“But we have to be fair. We were also in negotiation with another striker. This deal blew off. One or two hours before deadline, the player blew up the deal.”
Middlesbrough were frustrated not to win after a dominant first-half display, but head coach Kim Hellberg is happy with the way they are playing.
“We were the better team from my point of view and controlled things, playing good football,” Hellberg said.
“We created a lot of chances, especially in the first half, and kept them to very few.
“They had a spell in the second half, maybe 15 minutes, where they were quite strong but didn’t create so many chances.
“But sometimes we were not good enough with the ball, and Burnley got the crowd with them.
“Otherwise, I think it was a very good performance. We would have wanted three points, but we had to settle for one.
“We’re still getting there with a lot of players coming back and we’re building them up, which means we will just get better. But I think this was a big step forward in terms of how we want to look as a football side.
“I think this, in general, was one of our best performances this season in terms of how we looked against very strong opponents.”
