Coventry City 0-1 Burnley: Nathan Tella goal gives Clarets victory
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Nathan Tella's winner at Coventry was his fifth goal of the season
Nathan Tella scored the only goal of the game to see Burnley move back to within striking distance of the Championship's top two and left Coventry six points from safety at the bottom.
The Clarets striker, on loan from Southampton, did brilliantly to run on to Josh Cullen's pass over the top of the Sky Blues' defence, control instantly and fire a volley from an acute angle in off the far post after 39 minutes.
That was Tella's fifth of the season and ended a frustrating run for Vincent Kompany's side, who had seen four of their previous five games end 1-1, the last two because of late equalisers.
Kompany had demanded his players close out games better, but Jonathan Panzo's header against the bar from a Kasey Palmer corner was the only real threat to the visitors' goal.
Burnley should have extended their lead in the second half to calm supporters' nerves but Jay Rodriguez hit the side netting when Anass Zaroury was well placed for a tap-in, and the Clarets almost paid for it when Ben Sheaf's cross was glanced wide by Matt Godden as Coventry applied late pressure.
That chance reinforced Kompany's pre-match warning about his side needing to rid themselves of a vulnerability from crosses, with equalisers from Cardiff and Stoke in the past seven days both coming from that source.
Coventry manager Mark Robins hoped his side had turned the corner after suffering four defeats and three draws in their opening seven games, as they picked up their first win, over Middlesbrough, last week and then battled to a goalless draw at Bristol City in midweek.
Defeat leaves them six points behind Boro, who are in 21st, although they have played three games fewer.
The Sky Blues camped in the Burnley half for the final 10 minutes but apart from Godden's header whistling wide, their only attempt of any note was a shot from substitute Todd Kane which almost found the top corner.
Burnley, who have designs on bouncing straight back into the Premier League, were further boosted by news that top two Sheffield United and Norwich City had both lost, leaving them two points off the top.
Burnley boss Vincent Kompany:
"It is the ideal script, it is not what I wanted before the game because I would like to put the game behind us earlier.
"We weren't capable of finishing the game off today but given what happened midweek, in the last 10 minutes we had to battle it out.
"We were still a hard running team and protected our goal a bit more. We are in the habit of leading and we need to get through it more and more and then you get better at it and this is a good reference point for us.
"As teams play with back fives or sit deep, it is the type of game we face quite a few times and you can't have players resting and waiting, you have to stretch the line and make runs and Nathan [Tella] has been successful with it a few times this season."
Coventry manager Mark Robins:
"They are a good side, they were exactly what we expected but our performance was pretty good.
"They pin teams in and they have loads of pace. They are a really good side, but to concede the goal we did was really disappointing.
"From our perspective we had been okay and limited them to not a lot. We hit the underside of the crossbar for the second game in a row.
"It was difficult to break them down, they had looked at their habit which is not a great one of conceding late and from crosses and you could see their nerves."