Close but no cigar for Clarets says boss Dyche

The Burnley boss believed that his side had responded well enough to earn a draw at Selhurst Park and they went close when Ashley Barnes was denied by Eagles goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey late on.

After the Clarets extended their winless run to six games in the Premier League, Dyche said: "I think it's a close but no cigar afternoon. I thought they were better than us in the first half, not by miles just that feeling of a performance sometimes and then second half I thought we were at least decent.

"I thought we probably deserved to scratch a draw out of the game at the end, but the margins don't change the record. The margins were tight early season, we were winning a lot of games, the margins are tight now, I still think we've moved a long way from where we were last season, particularly away from home.

"In the second half we've really taken that game on today and arguably deserved to scratch something out of the game."

Dyche accepts that the visitors struggled to get to grips with the simplicity of Palace's play in the first half but took plenty of positives from the way his players performed after the break.

"Well to be honest I thought it was as much the simplicity of their play, kind of 4-2-2 with full backs not really going anywhere and the ball going forward very, very quickly.

"We didn't really deal with that whereas second half we got to grips with that and dealt with it much better and some of that is just team distances, the tactical side of the organisation maybe comes down to distances of the way the team's operating

"Second half I thought that was much better and when you're one nil down it's tough, you know it's a tough league to play in when you're one nil down.

"I was really, really pleased with the mentality in the second half and the way we took the game on and got much more on the front foot. We started to really try and be more productive than we were first half."