Dyche: No ‘magic’ to thank for Burnley success

Matt Stead

Sean Dyche says Burnley have now given themselves a “good base” to avoid relegation following the 3-2 victory over Crystal Palace.

Ashley Barnes fired the winner in the fourth minute of injury time after Connor Wickham and Christian Benteke had dragged Crystal Palace back from a two-goal deficit and looked to have snatched them a point.

Their win – set up by early strikes from Sam Vokes and Johann Gudmundsson – sent the Clarets up to ninth but Dyche insisted the most important thing is not to get carried away.

Dyche said: “Every single win is to be enjoyed but not thought about too deeply as if some kind of magic has happened.

“It feels like we’ve given ourselves a good base. We know we have to continue to learn an improve. It was enjoyable for all of us but the whistle will blow again before we know it and we will have to get back to business.

“Points against anyone in the Premier League are fantastic. To get those points on the board we have to build on the mentality of the group coming out of the Championship and add to it, and I’m very pleased with how we’ve done that so far.”

Dyche reserved particular praise for Barnes, who missed most of last season with a cruciate ligament injury and was also hampered by hamstring problems prior to his first appearance of the season as a substitute at Old Trafford last week.

The striker slammed the ball into the roof of the net just minutes after replacing Jeff Hendrick and Dyche said: “Ashley has had this niggly injury which kept him out but we know he is a strong character to come through that and it (today) was the icing on the cake.

“To come back into the squad for a few minutes last week then to score the winner today with a fantastic finish – the ball in was sublime and the finish is absolutely immaculate.

“Our mentality was superb but to go 2-2 from a counter-attack I thought ‘which way is this going’ and sometimes you’ve got to got with what you were thinking.

“(Andre) Gray was the obvious choice but I thought it was right for Barnesy – I thought he could fill the two slots up front and he did both and he scored the winner.”