A 94th-minute winner from Ashley Barnes handed Burnley a 3-2 victory over Crystal Palace at Turf Moor this afternoon to lift the Clarets into the top half of the table.

Palace had earlier staged a second-half comeback to cancel out a two-goal deficit, but Barnes's late strike condemned the Eagles to a fourth consecutive defeat to leave them just four points clear of the relegation zone.

The Clarets went into the match as the in-form team having lost just one of their last five games at home, and it took them less than two minutes to break the deadlock as Sam Vokes smuggled the ball home from close range after Steve Mandanda had failed to hold on to Matthew Lowton's shot.

Wilfried Zaha had the visitors' first opening of the match when his low strike was kept out by Tom Heaton, but Burnley quickly went up the other end and doubled their advantage in a high-tempo start to the match.

Again Mandanda could have done better as the keeper failed to keep out Johann Berg Gudmundsson's low strike from the edge of the box, allowing the ball to sneak under his body and bounce into the empty net.

The tempo slowed as the first half wore on, but Burnley needed Heaton - man of the match against Manchester United last time out - on form again towards the end of the opening 45 minutes when he got down well to deny Christian Benteke's low strike.

Burnley almost made another quick start when the second half got underway as Vokes threatened to double his personal tally, but this time he dragged his shot wide from the edge of the area.

That looked like it could prove costly when Palace went up the other end and halved the deficit just one minute later, with Zaha sliding an inch-perfect cross into the path of Connor Wickham, who made no mistake with his finish.

Palace lost all three of their matches in October, but they seemed to have stopped the rot when they completed the turnaround with just nine minutes of the match remaining. Benteke coolly slotted home from the penalty spot after Lowton had inexplicably handled Andros Townsend's cross inside the area.

However, there was to be more heartbreak for the Eagles as Burnley clinched all three points in the fourth minute of stoppage time courtesy of a quick counter-attack that saw Barnes exchange passes with Gudmundsson before hammering his finish into the roof of the net.

There was almost one more late twist, though, as Townsend came within inches of rescuing a point for his side in the 96th minute, only to see his effort from the edge of the box crash against the upright.

The result sees Burnley climb up to ninth in the Premier League table, just one point behind Manchester United, courtesy of their first three-match unbeaten run of the season.

Palace, meanwhile, have now lost four on the bounce for the first time since February and sink down to 15th place.

The Eagles have won just two of their last 17 Premier League away games and are without a clean sheet in 16, maintaining their record of being one of only two teams, along with Sunderland, to have conceded in every game this season.