Ashley Barnes sends Burnley into Premier League's top four with late winner to down Stoke

Burnley 1 Stoke City 0: The striker played a one-two before firing past Jack Butland to hand the home side all three points

Ashley Barnes scores the winner for Burnley (Getty)

Ashley Barnes’ dramatic 88th minute winner lifted Sean Dyche and Burnley into the top four of English football’s top division for the first time since 1975.

The pragmatic Burnley manager is still talking only of Premier League survival but thanks to Barnes, who controlled Jack Cork’s long ball and played a one-two with Scott Anfield before scoring from 16 yards, his supporters can relish the fact they stand above Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool – for 24 hours at least.

Not since March 1975 – a season in which they would finish 10th in the old first division – have those fans experienced such dizzy heights on a freezing Turf Moor night, the wait made victory all the sweeter.

Stoke had made by far the stronger start of the teams, Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope called into relatively routine action on at least three occasions in the opening minutes.

Sean Dyche is enjoying a fine season as Burnley manager (Getty)

Peter Crouch’s successful challenge set up Xherdan Shaqiri for a long shot straight at Pope before Ramadan’s ball into the area was miskicked by James Tarkowski, presenting Crouch with the hint of an opening at the far post.

Pope was again alert, comfortably blocking the effort although the best of the early chances was to come, from a Shaqiri corner which picked out Kurt Zouma unmarked 15 yards out, only for the defender to volley directly at the keeper again.

Still, it was promising and showed mental fortitude considering the visitors’ current malaise, three points above the relegation places, and the fact that they faced a gauntlet of their own angry supporters when they got off their train at Stoke station on Saturday evening, following a dispiriting defeat at Tottenham.

The early exchanges suggested that his players were responding to that experience, although they were helped by Burnley failing to find the sort of form that has made them such a surprise package in this Premier League season.

The only moment of remote excitement for home supporters in the opening quarter of this game, however, came when Jack Butland uncharacteristically fumbled a routine centre into his area and needed Erik Pieters to clear.

The watching England manager Gareth Southgate might have made a mental note of that error although, to be frank, as the half wore on there was little opportunity for Butland to show his international manager what he could do.

Instead, Mame Biram Diouf headed down and wide, from Ramadan’s cross, Diouf had a shot deflected into the side-netting from Shaqiri’s pass and Ramadan curled a weak effort towards the top corner of the Burnley goal for Pope to catch comfortably.

A more direct approach, and flurry of set-pieces, allowed the hosts to end the half in slightly better shape although, aside from a blocked Scott Arfield shot and an effort which Johann Berg Gudmundsson curled over, there was still little to trouble Butland.

Xherdan Shaqiri failed to make an impact on the game (Getty)

Dyche was forced to reshuffle his team before the interval, with left-back Charlie Taylor replacing the injured Stephen Ward, and the substitute’s early second half cross forced Zouma into an important clearance.

That set the tone for a better half from the hosts, but still one which failed to live up to the dizzying heights of some of their football to date in the campaign.

Gudmundsson’s far-post free-kick was narrowly missed by Kevin Long and Tarkowski while Kevin Wimmer, on for the injured Zouma, served a poor clearance straight to Steven Defour whose long shot might have stung Butland’s hands but did little else.

Another Burnley attack ended in similarly unproductive results as Chris Wood missed with an attempted overhead kick and Gudmundsson pounced on the loose ball only to shoot well over the Stoke goal.