BURNLEY, England, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Manchester United’s Benjamin Sesko scored twice as his team kicked off the post‑Ruben Amorim era with a familiar sense of frustration in a 2-2 Premier League draw at lowly Burnley on Wednesday.
United, with interim manager Darren Fletcher in charge, would have climbed to fourth in the table with a win but slipped to seventhon 32 points after a third consecutive draw. Burnley are 19th, eight points adrift of safety.
United looked headed for victory before Burnley substitute Jaidon Anthony struck the equaliser against the run of play in the 66th minute, capitalising on lackadaisical defending to launch a blistering shot from the edge of the penalty area.
Burnley had stunned the visitors in the 13th minute when a cross from Bashir Humphreys took a big deflection off United defender Ayden Heaven and looped into the far corner of the net.
Sesko ended a nine-game goal drought in the 50th minute when he ran onto a perfectly weighted ball from Bruno Fernandes and fired a low shot first time past Martin Dubravka, and the Slovenian striker completed his double 10 minutes later by steering home Patrick Dorgu’s cross with a superb volley.
“It helps me for my confidence but also it is the most important to help the team in every single situation,” Sesko told the BBC.
“It’s been tough but now I finally did it and I’m happy I could help the team, this is the most important for me and now it’s just up to me and up to us to keep going like that.”
LATE CHANCES
United had several chances to nab a late winner, including a powerful strike against the crossbar by 18-year-old substitute Shea Lacey, and they had 10 shots on target in the match to the home side’s one.
In the first half alone, the visitors had two efforts cleared off the line, one by Humphreys and one by Maxime Esteve.
Casemiro headed Fernandes’ free kick into the middle and Matheus Cunha leapt high for a header that Humphreys, falling backward into his own net, headed out of danger.
Dorgu chipped the ball over keeper Dubravka, but Esteve slid in to clear it off the line and United’s Lisandro Martinez had a goal disallowed after VAR ruled he had fouled Kyle Walker in the build-up.
“Bit disappointed that we didn’t win the game,” Fletcher said. “We did more than enough in terms of chances, shots, balls cleared off the line, not sure why Martinez’s goal was taken away.
“When you get to 2-1 up you want to see out the game, score another goal. To concede and not find the goal to win 3-2, it’s disappointing. The effort was there, the application was there. I’m happy with their output and levels but I know they have more in them.”
A big plus for United was the return of captain Fernandes, who started in his first game since picking up a hamstring injury before Christmas.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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