Dyche bemoans soft goal

George Boyd put Burnley ahead, having been teed up by Danny Ings, in a first half which saw Ings denied by Rob Elliot, while the in-form striker also had a hand in creating good openings for Ashley Barnes and David Jones.

But a failure to get the crucial second goal allowed Newcastle back in, as Papiss Cisse netted a second half equaliser after the Clarets failed to clear their lines.

It was a fourth game without defeat, however, and the point lifted Burnley out of the bottom three.

Dyche said: “I thought first half we were excellent and had a real big chance just before half-time to go 2-0 up.

“We kept them really quiet and played some good football. We expected a reaction and gave them the chance with a poor goal by our standards, which is unusual for us.

“After that they had good pockets of play because they’re a good side, but so did we and it became a bit ding-dong in the second half.

“We created arguably the slightly better chances overall, but good signs again - it was a very good performance against a team in form, barring a blip on Saturday.”

Burnley played with real verve at times in the first period, and Dyche added: “I really enjoyed the first half, it’s an unforgiving division and we had to grind out a result at Stoke, but we know we can play, and we want to affect teams to win games.

“We probably should have on Saturday and same again here, we have to keep turning the nearlys into actuals and make sure we win.

“There’s certainly life in those performances for sure.”

It means Burnley have only won one home game so far this season, but Dyche isn’t overly concerned: “I’m not over-thinking that, we’re in the Premier League I’ll remind you, it’s a tough task.”

And he isn’t taking much notice of the league table, only focusing on the next game at Loftus Road on Saturday: “That journey is a different one, it’s important we concentrate on performances, there has to be a future in your performances, and there certainly is at the moment, but we’ve got to make sure we get ready to deliver again at QPR.

“If you don’t, you can get hurt.

“I’m not playing it down, I’m being honest, we had the same mantra last season as you know, one game at a time.

“It’s the way we like to work.”

Stephen Ward was stretchered off after taking a knock to his ankle in the second half, but Dyche admits it’s too early to tell the extent of the problem: “We’ll wait and see, he’s ok in himself, which is normally a good sign though. It’s his ankle, I’ve only had a quick look, and we’ll get it checked out.”