Salford City 0-4 Burnley: Clarets cruise into Carabao Cup fourth round

Burnley’s second string team brushed off League Two strugglers Salford to cruise into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

Vincent Kompany’s side took an early lead as Sander Berge was left free in the box to head home from Anass Zaroury’s corner.

Jacob Bruun Larsen then dinked the ball over Alex Cairns from Zaroury’s pass.

Dara O’Shea pounced from close range to put the result beyond any doubt after 27 minutes as Salford’s defence failed to deal with a left-wing ball from the lively Zaroury.

They had to wait an additional 54 minutes to get their final goal with 18-year-old Frenchman Wilson Odobert smashing home on his first start in English football.

None of the four scorers had netted for Burnley before. Zaroury had a hand in all four goals.

This was Salford’s first home game against top-flight opposition, the latest landmark since the ‘Class of 92’ takeover in 2014 that has taken them from the eighth tier to League Two.

They beat Championship sides Preston and Leeds in the previous two rounds but came into this one on the back of five consecutive defeats.

And they never looked capable of a shock, rarely testing Burnley’s backline or goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.

Burnley await their fourth-round opponents in Wednesday’s draw but thoughts will immediately turn towards Saturday’s trip to Newcastle as they bid for a first league win since last season’s promotion.

Kompany may have made 11 changes but he still put out a strong team – the first three scorers are senior internationals – and some may hope they did enough at Peninsula Stadium to start at St James’ Park.

Burnley boss Vincent Kompany told BBC Radio 5 Live: “I think we were quite happy to have the game. We had 14 new players at the start of the season so these kind of games are massive.

“We looked like a team, so that’s a good win away from home and we’ve given ourselves another round to look forward to.

“It was disciplined for 95 minutes. We’re still looking to bring a team together, so you have to look for positives – for us, it was the discipline, organisation, we didn’t give chances away and we created enough for the goals we scored.”

Salford boss Neil Wood: “Playing against a Premier League team, three levels above us, it’s always going to be difficult.

“They’re very technical, very good players and tactically it’s a very good system that’s difficult to defend against.

“It’s disappointing to concede off two set-pieces for us. All credit to them, they’re a very good team.

“It was a really difficult night but not a night that we weren’t expecting.”