Burnley 4-0 Luton: Clarets cruise to victory after early Hatters red card

Burnley kept chase with the Championship automatic promotion spots after a rampant 4-0 win against 10-man Luton, who fell deeper into the relegation zone.

Two of last season's Premier League clubs were worlds apart at Turf Moor as a Mark McGuinness' own goal and a Lyle Foster strike punished Kal Naismith's red card in the first half.

The Clarets enhanced their grip on the game after the break - through Josh Brownhill and Ashley Barnes - and remain two points behind second-place Sheffield United.

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After a dominant 19 minutes with the ball, Burnley's run to victory was given an extra boost as Naismith was dismissed after he was shown two yellow cards.

The Luton defender's first offence was on Josh Laurent, who Naismith hacked down as he led a counter-attack, 12 minutes in.

And only seven minutes later, Luton were forced down to 10 men as Naismith's late challenge on Brownhill saw him sent off.

Until the man advantage, the Clarets had not mustered a shot, with Connor Roberts' curled effort - that floated over the crossbar - the closest they had come after 23 minutes.

But the pressure on Luton's backline soon cranked up and on the half-hour mark, McGuinness put Roberts' cross into his own net.

The Hatters failed to have a shot in the first half and their lacklustre performance was punished further when Foster skipped in front of his opponent to prod Jaidon Anthony's drilled pass in, six minutes before the break.

Marcus Edwards had been busy throughout the game and in first-half stoppage-time, the winger saw his strike flicked over the crossbar by a diving defender.

The winger would then play a vital role in Burnley's third goal, eight minutes into the second period.

Edwards toyed with his opponent again, this time Amari'i Bell, before getting to the byline and cutting the ball back for Brownhill to crash in.

Brownhill could have added to his tally and Luton's misery, moments later, as a poor clearance by Luton fell to the Burnley captain but he lashed his volley wide from just inside the box.

The relegation-threatened side finally managed to break past Burnley's defence - 65 minutes in - after a mix-up between Maxime Esteve and CJ Egan-Riley let Jacob Brown through, but the forward could not bend his shot around James Trafford.

It sparked a dim light into Luton's performance, who fell to 23rd in the table, as they would enjoy their best spell of the game, with Brown denied by Trafford again.

But the hosts continued to flex their attacking prowess with a fourth as Barnes thumped in his first goal since returning to Burnley with the final kick of the game.

The managers

Burnley's Scott Parker:

"I am not focused on promotion. There are 10 games left and we need to keep pushing and see where it gets us.

"There are a couple of ways to get out of this division, our aim is to obviously get out automatically but it is full focus on what is next.

"Every challenge that has come at us, we have hit head on and this is a team that are fighting for their lives and have quality who were in the Premier League last season.

"You only have to look at the history books of teams that come out the Premier League and we have seen that this is a tough division and you have to have a certain something about you to be competitive.

"And we got everything with the performance. We faced 10 men once this season before and it proved problematic and you have seen that over the history of certain games.

"Teams are difficult to break down when they get a man sent off but we had a real patience and we created numerous chances, we served our wingers in threatening positions and they executed and we scored four goals."

Luton's Matt Bloomfield:

"We have to let it go. We are in charge of how we react and emotions.

"It's a disappointing day but I'm very proud of how my lads kept going and they didn't go under. I actually thought we were very good before the sending off.

"With 10 men it was going to be a lot more difficult, but with 11 I thought we were fantastic, but once the sending off happens, it's going to be a tough afternoon.

"In my opinion, Kal (Naismith) gets the ball, it is right in front of me, he deviates the ball. I know his momentum takes him into the player but the player is not hurt.

"He gets up and he is fine, but no arguments about the second one. I am not going to criticise any of my players, the effort and attitude from them was brilliant, considering our away form and where we are in the league."

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