Manager Sean Dyche has hailed the continued improvement of Burnley following the weekend’s victory over Southampton and match winner Sam Vokes also came in for praise.
Heading to St Mary’s Stadium for the tie against Southampton, Burnley took a one nil victory courtesy of Vokes header in the 81st minute and Dyche felt it was the least we had deserved on the day.
Speaking to the Official Site as he reflected on another good step forward, Dyche explained about our third straight away success of the campaign that drew us joint level in fifth place with Liverpool.
‘There`s a great professionalism about this group and that`s to be marvelled at in my eyes. It`s a very difficult thing in the Premier League. To come to these grounds and get the points away from home is very, very pleasing. Now, of course, it`s layering it. Are we adding layers, are we moving forward? I think we are. I think the collective group are. It`s maintaining that thirst and desire to keep pushing on and we definitely saw that again on Saturday.’
Speaking more about the game itself, he went on to say.
‘When you plan out these type of games, you hope it will pan out as you hope and that`s as close as we have been to making things work in our favour. We had to be diligent and work hard in the first half and looked to counter and today, the depth in the squad was evident. I`m really pleased with our timing, as a staff, at the timing of the substitutions today. The two lads who came on up top were absolutely terrific and they changed the whole feel of the game and turned it in our favour. I thought those two lads were a credit to their profession. I marvel at this group, especially those who aren`t playing week-in and week-out and they came on and really affected the game.’
For Vokes specifically, he added.
‘Sam`s header is sublime. What a header that is! It`s right up there with some of the best headers I`ve seen. He is jumping away from goal and gets tremendous power to find the corner and it was worthy of winning any game. Twelve yards out, to find the net with that power and beat a keeper of that standard, from a fantastic cross, it`s a fantastic finish and that caps off a fine display.’
Dyche also called on the team to show further improvements when we were on the ball now confidence was higher.
‘We still know that we can be better with the ball, but we`ve found a way of operating that suits us and it`s been two fantastic clean sheets this week. Two hard earned wins is probably where we are at, at the moment. The margins are tight and you have to get on the right side of them and, so far, we`ve done that. You have to be resolute in your defending and your shape they are things that I take very seriously.’
Adding.
‘We know where we`re at and we still need more quality when we`re going forwards, but we are willing to do the graft and we do that very well. I`m delighted to be where we are, but we know there are a lot more challenges coming our way and there`s a belief in this group that we`ll have to work hard for everything we get.’
