Spectacular strikes send Burnley to Wembley
Owen Coyle will lead Burnley out at Wembley
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Tuesday, 12, May 2009 09:54
Two amazing goals from Martin Paterson and Kevin Thompson has secured Burley their place in the Championship play-off final with a 2-0 win over Reading.
The game had been finely poised in the second-half before Paterson struck from 30-yards and then Thompson thumped home a volley to see the tie finish 3-0 on aggregate to Burnley.
Reading were a goal down from the first-leg and they had failed to win at home since January so they needed a good start to lift the spirits at the Madejski Stadium.
They almost did that with the first chance of the game as a Reading free-kick fell to Shane Long and he saw his shot parried by Burnley goalkeeper Brian Jensen and Michael Duberry fired the follow-up over the bar.
Burnley were slow to get started and it took them close to half-an-hour to get a sniff of the Reading goal. A good run from Chris McCann down the left-wing led to him putting in a dangerous ball into the penalty area, which Wade Elliot got on the end of but saw his volley deflect of Jay Tabb and go over.
Jensen was lucky to escape punishment when he came out to smother Long and looked to have handled the ball outside his penalty area. Referee Mike Riley gave Reading the free-kick, but showed no card. The Burnley keeper then did well to save the resulting free-kick from Dan Harding.
The game exploding into life with a stunning goal from Paterson in the second-half. The Northern Ireland international collected the ball on the halfway line and then made his way into the Reading half before thundering home a 30-yard effort past Marcus Hahnemann.
Reading had been the better side up until the goal and their promotion hopes were dead and buried thanks to another fantastic strike.
Alex Pearce failed to clear the danger from the Reading penalty area and Thompson smacked a volley from the left handside of the penalty area which went in off the bar.
Reading were left stunned by what had happened and barely posed a threat on the Burnley goal for the rest of the match knowing they needed an unlikely three goals to reach the final.