We showed great belief - Eddie Howe

Staring a fifth-successive defeat in the face, and an unwanted place in the bottom three, David Edgar struck twice before Jay Rodriguez fired an injury-time winner to haul Burnley up to 16th in the table.

An elated Howe beamed: “I’ve never seen anything like that. It was a very strange game, but for me it just sums up the beauty of football.

“It’s why this game is so good and why everyone wants to watch it.

“We were disappointing for long periods, if I’m honest, and at 2-0 down, you think we’re dead and buried and we’re out of the game – it’s going to be our fifth defeat and it’s all going to be doom and gloom.

“But the lads got a huge confidence boost when David Edgar scored his first goal and started to believe in themselves again, and from then on in we played some great stuff and looked like we were going to score every time we attacked.”

Howe had made changes, restoring Ben Mee to left back at the expense of Brian Easton, while playing an extra midfielder in Junior Stanislas in place of striker Sam Vokes to try and be harder to beat, but he accepted he got that wrong as Hull went into a two-goal lead with a brace from Matty Fryatt: “It’s a difficult one because we wanted to try and be a bit more solid and bit harder to beat with our defensive record in mind to try and shore us up a little bit.

“I don’t think it worked particularly well and I’ve got to look at myself for that because I don’t think the team selection was particularly good, and we had to change it.

“I was standing there thinking we didn’t look like scoring either.

“We hadn’t performed and hadn’t built any momentum, so it’s difficult to know where we’re going to go from there.

“But the first goal was the key point. It was a great header by David and he’s scored two good goals.

“It’s confidence with this group of players because we are so young and those players don’t have a lot of experience to fall back on.

“When they believe in themselves like they did when they got that lift you saw a different team and you saw what they’re capable of.”

Vokes’ introduction at half-time was also important, as Howe noted: “He’s a physical presence and you just have to see with David Edgar’s second goal, a little knockdown in the box from Sam’s flick.

“I thought he did really well in the second half. But Keith Treacy starts to come into the game, and Ross Wallace on the other side.

“They’re both very good players. Jay Rodriguez is one of the best strikers in the league in my opinion.

“We do have the players, it’s just trying to get that performance that we saw at the end as the regular Burnley.”

Howe praised his players’ spirit – and the fans for sticking with them at a testing time: “I have to praise my player’ resilience and the way they stuck together – they are huge positives for us going forward because if we can build that team spirit, and I think the celebrations at the end reflected that, then we do have a really good chance with the quality we have within the squad of turning it around. I’d have had no complaints if the fans had turned because they only go on what they see. But I think what they have seen the players giving everything.

“I don’t think they can accuse the players of not giving 100%.

“We maybe haven’t had the performances that we want or the results that we wanted but I think they see an honest group of players giving everything for the club.

“I think as long as they see that they will stick with us.”