They had been waiting almost all season and eventually it came. A first away win of the campaign for Burnley who look set to remain in the Premier League next season.

Barnes scores and causes an abundance of problems

The visitors came into the match severely under pressure as their poor away form began to haunt them. Sliding down the table at an alarming rate, whilst Crystal Palace had dragged themselves out of trouble.

Yet after an early spell of Palace pressure, that saw Christian Benteke force Tom Heaton into a smart stop, Burnley gave themselves the foothold they required. A neat passing move from the Burnley midfield released Stephen Ward from left-back and he duly slid the ball across to Ashley Barnes. After swinging and missing at the first attempt, the industrious striker slotted the visitors into the lead.

Barnes continued to cause problems for a patched up Palace defence in the absence of Mamadou Sakho. The grafter had the ball in the back of the net for a second time on 15 minutes only for his effort to be correctly ruled out when he controlled Michael Keane's knock down with his hand.

The game began to labour into a slow tempo with Sam Vokes' header the only effort of note for 20 minutes. Yet both sides had chances to score within a minute of each other with Vokes playing a key part at both ends. Firstly, he was unable to clear a Palace corner with the rebound falling to Luka Milivojevic who snatched a golden opportunity wide. Vokes then forced Wayne Hennessey into an excellent save from a header just a minute later.

Gray secures win after loss of heads for Palace

Burnley continued to frustrate into the second half with their two rigid banks of four. Milivojevic hit a speculative long-range half-volley straight at Heaton, as Palace failed to create any telling opportunities.

Frustrations grew as Benteke simply could not find a way out of James Tarkowski's back pocket, whilst ill-discipline crept into Palace's game. Wilf Zaha wasted all his energy arguing with the assistant referee on the right side of the pitch and Patrick Van Aanholt took his anger out on Andros Townsend on the opposite side of Selhurst Park. In the dugout, Sam Allardyce looked as if he had spent a week abroad without sun lotion as he remained red with rage.

Eventually, Palace were made to pay as George Boyd intercepted on the halfway line and released a delightful pass to substitute Andre Gray. The striker raced away from the home defence and secured all three points with a powerful finish.

Zaha did manufacture a late effort but Heaton was equal to it at his near post as Burnley leapfrogged their hosts and all but secured Premier League survival.