WATFORD, England :Josh Brownhill’s second-half strike earned Burnley a 2-1 win at nine-man Watford on Friday, extending the visitors’ unbeaten run in the Championship to 30 matches and moving them closer to a Premier League return.
Burnley climbed to the top of the standings with 91 points from 43 games, three ahead of second-placed Leeds United, who travel to Oxford United later on Friday.
Watford, who dropped to 12th place, went ahead in the eighth minute when Rocco Vata’s swerving cross was nodded home by Mamadou Doumbia, but the hosts spurned a number of chances to extend their lead.
They were made to rue their wastefulness on the stroke of halftime after a rapid Burnley counter-attack was finished off by Zian Flemming with a diving header.
Buoyed by the equaliser, Burnley dialled up the pressure after the interval and found the winner in the 58th minute through Brownhill’s close-range header.
Watford, seeing their chances of closing in on the playoff positions evaporate, imploded immediately after conceding.
Moussa Sissoko was shown a red card for shoving Flemming from the kickoff and any chance the hosts had of mounting a comeback disappeared when midfielder Edo Kayembe was dismissed in the 69th minute after picking up his second yellow card.
Burnley continued their remarkable unbeaten record in the Championship, with Scott Parker’s side last losing a league game in November.
They are only the second team in Championship history to go 30 consecutive games without losing in the regular season after Reading accomplished the feat in 2006.
