Burnley held on against an impressive Southampton fightback in a five-goal thriller at Turf Moor.
Brave fightback comes to nothing at Turf Moor
Burnley held on against an impressive Southampton fightback to secure another three points in their bid to secure promotion to the Premier League.
Owen Coyle's men cruised into a 3-0 lead with just 11 minutes on the clock after Chris Perry's own goal and Joey Gudjonsson's rapid brace.
The visitors hit back after the break and reduced the arrears through Rudi Skacel and Andrew Surman with 61 minutes gone, but despite a sustained barrage in the closing stages they could not fashion an equaliser.
Burnley have a two-legged Carling Cup semi-final against Tottenham to look forward to next month but promotion must surely be the priority.
At the halfway point in the Championship season, they now have 40 points from 23 games, and in the opening period of this encounter they illustrated their quality by taking full advantage of Southampton's pitiful resistance.
In the second minute a delightful piece of footwork from Martin Paterson took him into the heart of the visitors' penalty box and he smashed a right-foot shot against the underside of the bar.
Two minutes later Burnley led when winger Wade Elliott - a lifelong Saints fan - drove a low cross from the right flank into the danger zone and the hapless Perry diverted the ball past Kelvin Davis.
It could have been 2-0 when Robbie Blake's low free-kick drew a fine save from Davis but from the resultant corner Burnley increased their lead.
Transformed
Blake swung the ball in from the left flank and after Davis could only weakly parry Steve Caldwell's far-post header, Gudjonsson nodded in the rebound from inside the six-yard box.
It was 3-0 in the 11th minute when Paterson played in Elliott down the right and his low cross was sidefooted into the roof of the net by Gudjonsson.
Burnley's dominance continued and Paterson hit the angle of post and bar in the 21st minute before the influential Chris Eagles tested Davis from distance.
Yet Saints played like a side transformed after the restart and they cut the gap in the 49th minute when Jason Euell crossed low from the right flank and Skacel dispatched a rising left-foot shot into the top corner from 16 yards.
The goal poured confidence into Poortvliet's players and they quickly laid siege to the home goal as the Turf Moor crowd became increasingly restless.
Saints' endeavour was rewarded again in the 61st minute when Bradley Wright-Phillips slipped a neat pass behind the sleeping Clarets defence and Surman nipped in to sweep a low shot past the exposed Brian Jensen.
Southampton continued to probe but the pendulum swung back towards Burnley as the half wore on and they created more opportunities, which they could not convert.
