Burnley show true grit - Sean Dyche

Though consecutive wins over Wolves and Leeds have been dampened by successive defeats at the hands of Ipswich Town and Charlton, Dyche believes his players came through a true test of character in the latest loss, passing with flying colours. Now Dyche is eager to find a consistent platform in a bid to marry performances and results.

“It’s their open minds to the change in mentality,” said Dyche. “We want to ensure there’s a really strong work ethic as well as quality. We know there’s quality, we know they can play, we do have players that can score goals, but everybody knew things had to get tighter and the framework had to be a bit stronger and possibly the mentality. All those signs were obvious today and shows that the building process is well on its way. We need to find that consistent base now so that we’re performing like that more often than not.”

Dyche added: “It’s not about finding superlatives, it’s about the nature of what we’re trying to do here. We’ve had a couple of weeks here working with the players and they’ve been excellent. They’ve been open-minded, they want to change, they want to develop, and improve and it shows in performances like that.

“Of course I want to take the three points, and the team wants to take three points but you’ve got to look at the performance as well as the outcome and they’ve shown clear, visual signs to all inside the stadium of what we’re attempting to do. It’s now about building that in to a consistent base. It was very good.”

The Clarets may well have been on course for a fourth clean sheet on the bounce on home soil had referee Robert Madley refrained from harshly dismissing Kieran Trippier just 15 minutes in to the first half. The full-back was adjudged to have handled Rob Hulse’s effort on the line, a decision Dyche wasn’t completely convinced with.

“It’s a tough one, that momentary decision of ball to hand or hand to ball,” said Dyche. “After watching it back it seemed like ball to hand - Kieran’s got his hands by his side, he’s shuffled back, gone to the line like defenders do to get the block, and it’s hit him. It’s a real tough decision for referees. But I thought there were other incidents that were much clearer in the game that we didn’t get.

“The rules are the rules. It’s not our world as managers or coaches. The referee had a decision to make and he made it. They’ve got assessors in the stand, everybody’s looking. There were some interesting moments today, let’s just leave it at that.

“Referee’s have tough jobs and in the last two games we’ve been very unfortunate with how decisions have gone for us. You can only hope that over the season things will land for you. We have to question the big decisions but I try not to get involved with referees because I’m more concerned with the performance of the players. That’s what will have a bearing on our season, not referees’ decisions.”

Dyche added: “I’m more interested in the performance and I thought it was excellent. There were so many positives to take, though unfortunately we lost 1-0. The crowd went away knowing that their team had given everything. That’s an important sign for us. When I came here I wanted to ensure there was a pride in wearing the shirt, a work ethic, and the play. Some of the play was excellent today.

“Controlling pockets of the game with 10 men is great. I thought we deserved a point minimum. We’ve created enough chances. There were so many with a team with 10 men. We were hard done by not to win it. It’s difficult to win literally every game but with performances like that there’s a big future.”

The new Clarets boss isn’t one to highlight individuals, but he was full of praise for midfielder Dean Marney who was converted in to a makeshift right-back after Trippier saw red. Dyche said: “I don’t really like to individualise people but Dean Marney was excellent today. We looked at it, took a few moments to take it in and let things calm down, make a decision and Dean filled in and did exceptionally well.

“I spoke to him at half-time and being the professional he is he told me that he was comfortable so we left him there. I thought his performance was thorough. We moved him in when we went 3-4-2, when trying to get something from the game, and he delivered there.”

He added: You could pick so many who had a shout for man of the match though. Stock has done well. We’re trying to alter his game with tweaks and twists to how he plays. McCann has done well today - talk about energy, enthusiasm and endeavour. Charlie never stopped, he’s still looking for goals. There were lots of positives but obviously you need the results and that was the only disappointing thing from today. The result doesn’t always match the reality of the game and that was the case.”

• The Burnley Express has launched a FREE football app which is now available to download on iPhone and Android devices.