No excuses from Burnley assistant Ian Woan after FA Cup exit

And he wasn't making any after two late goals saw Championship side Huddersfield Town knock the Clarets out of the FA Cup at the third round stage.

Burnley were hit with Covid ahead of the game, with manager Sean Dyche and first team coach Steve Stone absent and a number of players unavailable.

The Clarets fielded a strong starting line-up, with further changes unable to be made in the circumstances, with a bench of seven, including four youngsters.

Woan felt the players on duty were good enough to have won the tie, however, after Jay Rodriguez's opener, and he said: "Very disappointed, Huddersfield came on strong in the second half, but the game could and should have been over at half time if we could just smell it a bit more, show a bit more belief.

"The game was kind of petering out and then a sloppy mistake, indicative of where the season is right now.

"You get punished for half a mistake, then we are done on a set piece.

"Bitterly disappointed. The team we put out is as strong as we could go.

"We are stretched to the absolute limits. There is very little we can do to change it.

"We have to keep working with the players we have got."

Preparations were hit, but Woan wasn't leaning on that: "There are no excuses. We wanted to get the game on. I'm sure we could have got the game off, but that is not the way we work.

"There has been a lot of disruption his week, but the starting 11 was strong enough to win the game.

"It's a no-excuse environment, but we are super stretched this week, the manager, the coach, six players with Covid, two or three with injuries, Cornet away, so you're at your verty limit.

"We have to keep believing in what we do and hopefully get some bodies back for the next couple of weeks."

Chris Wood came off at half-time with a knock, to add to the problems, and Woan addeed: "When you play against three big centre-halves, and we ended up with Wood coming off, who is one of our main markers, we were downsized again.

"It was something we planned for. We worked hard on set plays this week, but when you are down a man, you get pinned and the ball is on the money. It is a difficult one to deal with it but we should have dealt with it.

"Wood felt his groin, it was touch and go. In the current climate we can’t be gambling too much with our centre forwards, Vyds is down with Covid and carrying with a slight hernia. Barnes is a few weeks away, Cornet away, so we have to be really cautious with our centre forwards.

"Young McGlynn was our only option."