Nicky Hayen defends Burnley's post-international break performances

Nicky Hayen has defended Burnley’s recent performances after his pledge that his side would be a “really good team” after the international break.

Following Burnley’s disastrous start to the season, the Belgian claimed his team just needed to “survive” until the three-week international break, where he could oversee some crucial work on the training pitch.

Upon their return, the Clarets have picked up four points from their three-game week, but remain in the Championship’s bottom three.

The manner of Burnley’s last two results have been particularly frustrating, with Hayen’s men conceding a stoppage-time equaliser against Charlton before squandering the lead to lose 2-1 at home to Wolves courtesy of two inexplicable defensive mistakes.

When asked if his “excuse” of waiting until after the international break is now wearing thin, Hayen hit back: “Did I use it? Did I use it now?

“We played in Watford, we played a really good game. Last week we played a decent game and conceded an equaliser [against Charlton] and today we have two individual mistakes, so I think the things that you saw in the first half were the work from the international break.

“But again, there's also a certain mental part of it that is really difficult and we're working on it also because we have a mental coach in the team.

“But you know when you're leading 1-0 and then you concede a goal, you feel that the stadium, the players become nervous because will it happen again? So this has nothing to do with the things that we did.

“I don't hide myself because I didn't mention any word about... you talk about 13 games, but I think three games we played actually quite well. We won a game, we drew a game, and actually this game today we didn't have to lose because only after it went 2-1 they had a free kick with Fer Lopez, which was saved by our goalkeeper.

“But after 2-1, they created chances. Why? Because we were doubting and they had of course energy because of our mistakes. But for the rest I think we played three decent games, but at the end the results are not good enough.”