Michael Kightly’s 54th minute goal saw already-promoted Burnley to a 1-0 victory over Town at Turf Moor and ended the Blues’ hopes of reaching the play-offs. Tommy Smith had a first-half header nodded off the line and sub Paul Taylor’s late freekick was well saved, but overall the Clarets deserved their victory.
Frazer Richardson was handed the right midfield role — rather than the central position anticipated before kick-off - with Paul Anderson missing out with the hamstring injury he aggravated in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.
Paul Green came into the centre alongside Cole Skuse with Anthony Wordsworth missing out with the dead leg he suffered on Monday. Luke Hyam remains on the sidelines with a hip flexor strain.
Christophe Berra was back at the heart of the defence with skipper Luke Chambers moving to right-back. Freddie Veseli was on the bench for the first time since he returned from his loan spell at Bury.
Having confirmed their promotion via a 2-0 win against Wigan on Monday, Burnley, wearing a vintage kit to celebrate their 1914 FA Cup win, struck the game’s first shot in the second minute, Scott Arfield’s effort deflecting wide from Danny Ings’s knockdown.
Daryl Murphy hit the first shot of the game for the Blues, who were wearing last season’s white and black away kit, from the edge of the box in the 10th minute but Ben Mee blocked.
Ashley Barnes just failed to reach Ings’s knockdown in the 11th minute as the home fans began a round of applause in tribute to Robbie Williamson, an 11-year-old boy who died earlier in the week after falling in a canal.
On 20 Burnley keeper Tom Heaton came off his line quickly to claim ahead of Stephen Hunt, but largely both keepers had been spectators.
Smith was booked for a tactical foul on Ings in the 25th minute after Aaron Cresswell had given the ball away midway inside the Blues’ half.
The New Zealand international was close to opening the scoring two minutes later when Kieran Trippier nodded his header off the line and over after Berra had knocked Richardson’s corner from the right back across the edge of the six-yard box.
The Blues were starting to look more dangerous, winning a number of corners. But on the half hour, following one of those Town flagkicks, the Clarets broke quickly but Arfield was unable to direct Kightly’s right-wing cross towards goal. On 33, Gerken claimed Barnes’s shot down to his right.
Burnley skipper Jason Shackell cut out Chambers’s right-sided cross as a rather lacklustre half moved into its final five minutes.
Murphy and Jonny Williams exchanged passes on the left in the 41st minute, the Irishman whipping over a teasing cross to the far post which Richardson couldn’t direct goalwards when under pressure from Kightly.
A minute later, Ings shot in to the side-netting, then Murphy cut in from the right before shooting across the face of goal. The less than exciting first period was brought to a close with no further significant action.
Town probably had the best chance of the first 45 minutes, with Smith’s header goal-bound until Trippier’s intervention.
But overall the Blues never gave the impression that they were a side desperately in need of three points to stay in the play-off race.
At the other end, Gerken hadn’t been seriously tested, although Burnley frontmen Ings and Barnes had had one or two threatening moments.
The home side took the lead with the second half’s first opportunity in the 54th minute. Barnes fed Ings, who took the ball into the area past Chambers before the advancing Gerken blocked, but Kightly, who played for Blues boss Mick McCarthy at Wolves, tapped the loose ball home from close range.
Immediately Blues subs Taylor, Frank Nouble and Jack Marriott started warming up on the touchline.
Ings shot not too far wide from distance just prior to the hour mark before the Clarets swapped Junior Stanislas for Kightly. Two minutes later, after Williams had received what looked like a high boot to the head inside the penalty area, Taylor and Nouble replaced Hunt and Richardson as the Blues moved to 4-3-3.
There was a scare for Town in the 69th minute when Stanislas nodded Dave Jones’s freekick from the right back across the box but Smith was on hand to block Barnes’s shot. Moments later, the Town centre-half similarly got in the way of an Ings strike with the Blues somewhat under the cosh.
Burnley almost went two goals in front in the 73rd minute when Ings crashed Dean Marney’s low cross from the right against the underside of the bar, the loose ball falling safely.
The Clarets were continuing to look the more likely scorers with the Blues rarely threatening Heaton’s goal. On 78 Green did well to intercept Marney’s ball for Stanislas as the home side broke after a Town corner.
The Blues weren’t far from an equaliser in the 80th minute when Heaton clawed Taylor’s curling 20-yard freekick wide after Green had been fouled by Michael Duff.
Williams was booked for a foul on the veteran Burnley defender soon after, then Nouble looped a powerful shot over from the edge of the box, the first signs that the Blues might stage a fightback in the final few minutes.
Nouble curled another effort wide on 88, then in the final minute centre-half Berra, who had by now been thrown forward as an additional striker, flicked Taylor’s excellent right-wing cross just wide.
But the comeback which would have taken Town’s play-off challenge into the final week of the season never came, Brighton’s victory over Yeovil last night having put the Seagulls four points ahead of the Blues.
Overall, it was an underwhelming manner in which to end the push for sixth place, Town having shown little urgency until after the home side had gone in front.
Even after Taylor and Nouble had been introduced, Burnley continued to look the more likely scorers — and Ings was unlucky not to increase their lead when he hit the bar - with the former Peterborough man’s freekick the nearest the Blues got to an equaliser.
Burnley: Heaton, Tripper, Shackell (c), Duff, Mee, Arfield (Wallace 71), Marney, Jones, Kightly (Stanislas 63), Barnes, Ings (Treacy 90). Unused: Cisak, Edgar, Baird, Long.
Town: Gerken, Chambers (c), Cresswell, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Richardson (Nouble 65), Green, Hunt (Taylor 65), Williams, Murphy. Unused: Loach, Mings, Veseli, Tabb, Marriott. Referee: James Linington (Newport, Isle of Wight). Att: 14,574 (Town: 460).