Manager Sean Dyche has said he was very pleased with a hard fought point against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road this weekend.
Playing out the scoreless draw in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s first match, Dyche said he always knew Burnley would have to weather and early storm on the day and once we had done that he felt it was a steady showing from us.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, a pleased gaffer explained that for him it was a point gained, not two lost, as Burnley extended their run of only one defeat in the last eleven on the day.
‘I was very pleased with the players today. These are very tough games and despite the fact they have only lost one here all season, they also have a new manager. That brings a new mentality but I felt we dealt with the game well early on, when they got the ball forward a lot and very early. Then, as the game wore on, we were terrific and in the last 20 minutes, to be the away side coming here and taking the game to them was great to see. The organisation, will and demand from the players to make sure the ball didn`t end up in the net was fantastic. We want to stay up there as long as we can because we feel we can go harder for longer than anyone else down the season, so these points are important and this was a tough one today.’
Knowing we could’ve nicked all three points late on with Sam Vokes efforts, he went on to say.
‘We want wins, of course we do, and we go everywhere to win a game, but you have to be realistic sometimes with the challenge. Today, I think everyone was thinking we are at QPR, against a new manager, with a team on a half decent run at home, so I was particularly pleased not only to nullify but then to go really strong and arguably have the measure of the chances in order to win.’
Dyche also confirmed that he had to resist temptation to rotate the starting eleven following on from the defeat to Preston in the last game, and he felt he had to keep faith instead.
‘There was a big demand on the players out there today. I told them it`s not a given, but I did stick with the team today. That doesn`t mean it won`t change, but I was pleased today, particularly in the second half. I want that demand, and if there`s an expectation that I`m going to play the same team, my lads know it`s not like that. Trust me, they know, but there`s a good mixture out there at the moment and a lot of good signs from a really strong performance.’
Having rubbished talk of a dip and problems with recent results, he did admit we had hit a ‘quiet’ period but he remained unconcerned about that.
‘We`ve had a quiet spell of results wins-wise, but the performances have been pretty strong and we`re still getting people back in the mix. There were players on the bench today itching to get on, but it would have been unfair to the lads out there as the game went on because it was nip and tuck.’
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