Dyche not carried away as promotion looms

Clarets boss Sean Dyche isn’t taking the blinkers off just yet, despite Burnley moving ever closer to promotion.
Sean DycheSean Dyche
Sean Dyche

Their elevation back to the Premier League could be confirmed on Saturday if they beat Middlesbrough at Turf Moor, and Derby fail to beat Huddersfield at Pride Park.

But, after the 1-0 win at Barnsley, Dyche is sticking to his “one game at a time” mantra: “Why would we go away from that? We’ve used that as a mental weapon and told them we’ve got to recover now, we’ll get ready for the next game.

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“The marvellous thing is we have three out of four home games now.”

The Clarets extended their advantage in second place to 11 points as Derby moved above QPR, beaten 2-0 at Blackburn Rovers, and Dyche felt his side were well worth the win at Oakwell, only a second since 1932: “I think we’ve played better to the ball, but credit to Barnsley, they gave everything they could to try and get a result.

“But if you’re talking about the tactical shape of the team and professionalism, energy and belief and work ethic, it was all there.

“We thought we could affect the game with quality, and arguably could have killed it off in a couple of moments.

“But we never really looked in trouble.”

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Ashley Barnes’ seventh-minute header from a Michael Kightly cross, and Dyche said: “Kights was alive down the left, he put a great cross in and Barnesey made a great run across the keeper and a great finish.”

Danny Ings returned after five games out with a sprained ankle, while Keiran Trippier was on the bench after sitting out four games with a hamstring tear, and he explained his thinking: “Keiran wanted to play but I made the decision, I felt he’d only had a couple of days’ real training, and felt it was too early.

“We were just careful.”