Burnley U23s 2 Birmingham City U23s 1

The Clarets dug deep to bounce back to winning ways in the Professional Development League as they hung on with 10 men to join Birmingham in pursuit of table-toppers Leeds United.

Left-back Matty Rain was sent off seven minutes into the second half for a second booking as he collected two of the eight yellow cards dished out in a competitive encounter at the Barnfield Training Centre.

That left Steve Stone’s men with well over half an hour to try and protect a two-goal lead given to them in the opening quarter by Marley Blair and a Jordan Cropper penalty.

They conceded once as Cropper inadvertently scored again, turning a cross into his own net to get the Blues back into the game with 22…