Clarets boss feels Ings is blossoming

And Clarets boss Sean Dyche feels the 22-year-old is showing good signs of blossoming in the Premier League after a tricky start to the season.

Ings - the Championship player of the year after bagging 26 goals on the way to promotion last term - missed a month of the season after suffering a hamstring strain just before half-time in Burnley’s fourth Premier League outing at Crystal Palace.

Dyche admits he felt the break would, bizarrely, do him good, to watch and take stock, and he said: “He’s showing great growth for a young man learning his trade at this level.

“He’s sharp and has that will to do it, he’s continued in a different way from last year.

“Theres big expectancy with (Sam) Vokesey being down from last season, and he’s dealing what very well after finding it tough at first.

“I said when he got injured, it might do him some good in a strange kind of way, and he’s come back strong and sharp.”

Ings and Ashley Barnes are the ony Clarets strikers to find the net so far this season, but Dyche is pleased with the forwards: “I think Barnesy worked hard (against Hull), Juke (Lukas Jutkiewicz) is so honest, he questions himself more than we do, so we wanted to free him up a little bit, and Marvin (Sordell) had a go for us at Arsenal.

“We believe in the group, simple as that.

“It’s an inner belief from me and the group we work with, we don’t listen to the noise from outside.”

Barnes wasn’t in the 18 at Arsenal last week, but came into the starting XI to score the winner against Hull, and Dyche explained: “I made it clear, I value every one of the players, we can only pick 11, but there’s never an angle, there’s never favourites, we pick a team, and I felt it was the right occasion to pick him, and I’m pleased he got his goal.”

Burnley are now in touch with the sides at the bottom - avoiding a scenario of being eight points adrift had they lost on Saturday, and Dyche added: “There are certainly two if not three divisions within it, we know where ours is, it’s not Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Man United - it doesn’t mean you can’t beat them, but it’s not our reality market.”