Burnley have won their opening two league games of a season for the first time since 2006-07
Burnley kept up their winning start to the Championship season as they punished a series of Cardiff City mistakes to beat the Bluebirds 5-0.
Ethan Horvath’s nightmare own goal gifted the Clarets the lead after nine minutes as a routine backpass slipped under the goalkeeper's foot, before rash defending by Dimitrios Goutas allowed Jay Rodriguez space to cross as Luca Koleosho smashed home a second.
Any hopes of a Cardiff revival in the second half were dashed when Vitinho’s pass split the Bluebirds defence wide open and allowed Josh Brownhill to race through and finish.
Burnley were not done and scored two spectacular late goals as Zeki Amdouni and Johann Berg Gudmundsson lashed home.
A thumping home win in his first game in the Turf Moor dugout continued Scott Parker’s impressive start to life as Burnley boss after their opening 4-1 win over Luton at Kenilworth Road.
Parker was without first-choice goalkeeper James Trafford who missed out through illness, while Rodriguez was the player tasked with replacing Wilson Odobert after his surprise £25m move to Tottenham Hotspur.
This always looked like a tough test for Cardiff who came to Turf Moor with boss Erol Bulut making two changes to the side beaten 2-0 by Sunderland, but all game plans went out of the window as the Bluebirds surrendered the advantage in this contest in truly farcical circumstances.
Burnley looked extremely impressive in their demolition of Luton, but they barely needed to get out of first gear before Cardiff gifted them a 1-0 lead.
There was little danger for the Bluebirds when Goutas opted to pass back to Horvath, but the goalkeeper allowed the ball to slip under his foot and was powerless to stop the ball trickling over the line as he ended up in the net.
Cardiff might have got back on level terms five minutes later when Joe Ralls sent Yakou Meite clear, but the forward struck the post after firing at goal at full stretch. That was as good as things got for the Bluebirds.
The visitors were ruthlessly punished for another mistake to go 2-0 down as Goutas slid into a challenge with Rodriguez and completely missed the ball, with Rodriguez’s cross deflecting to Koleosho who finished emphatically.
Cardiff have endured a horrible run of results against Burnley, with this defeat meaning they are now winless in away games against the Clarets since December 1990, having lost nine and drawn eight of their 17 games. Their last win at Turf Moor came in 1988.
The omens were not good for a second-half comeback, but any hopes the Welsh side had were dashed entirely when Brownhill scored his third goal in as many Championship matches after Callum O’Dowda surrendered possession.
The hosts were able to cruise at 3-0, having fully punished Cardiff’s sloppy play, before Amdouni hammered a fourth off the underside of the crossbar.
Things got even worse for Cardiff in stoppage time as Berg Gudmundsson added his own spectacular finish, lashing home as he cut inside.
Burnley's five goals came from just four shots on target, with Cardiff's miserable start to the season continuing as they head into the south Wales derby bottom of the Championship, with Burnley top after two games.
Cardiff's bad afternoon was compounded by a possible injury to Wales captain Aaron Ramsey, while the Bluebirds also lost their own skipper, Joe Ralls, to a first-half injury.
Post-match reaction
Burnley boss Scott Parker told BBC Radio Lancashire:
“The anticipation of coming here today, we wanted to get three points, that was the main objective and we have come away scoring five goals, being clinical and looking pretty deadly really. So overall it is a fantastic day for us.
“Cardiff are a good side and they caused us a few problems early on, they got a foothold, but the team adjusted and as the game went on we took a real control.
“We were deadly in our moments as we have been. The execution was amazing from the players.
“The stadium was rocking today. The fanbase are vital for us.”
Cardiff City boss Erol Bulut told BBC Radio Wales:
“When you see the result, I feel bad, but I don’t see it like this because when you see the first 35 minutes, we dominated the game.
“We had a lot of chances to score goals but we had a mistake with our goalkeeper – this can happen, we stand behind him – but in the first half we didn’t give up and we dominated the game.
If Yak (Yakou Meite) takes the chance where he hits the post, I think after the game we would be speaking about a different result.
“But it didn’t happen and we lost the game, in the second half it is not easy to come from 2-0 back.”
