It's a head scratcher how we have only come away with a point

Last updated : 01 January 2015 By Tony Scholes

John Carver is currently in temporary control of Newcastle with manager Alan Pardew in talks with Palace. This was his first game in charge and he was asked what had changed between the two halves, with Newcastle going in 2-1 up at half time against a depleted Burnley team brought about by us having to make three substitutions in the first 37 minutes.

"It's a great question and I'd love to have the answer for you right now, but obviously I haven't," he said. "I have never been involved in football where that cliché of two halves was so apparent.

"In the first 45 minutes we actually played some good football, probably the best football we've played, I have to be honest, but we gift them a goal with an individual error, and that individual has been outstanding this season for us.

"He has come from nowhere, he' s a local lad and he has been at left back, left centre-back and he has been fantastic, so I will never, ever have a go at him. It's an error, he knows he's made a mistake and we move on on that situation.

"But our first half performance, we could have come in two, three-nil up. We had enough chances, we passed the ball with purpose, we were positive, we had movement off the ball.

"We came in at half time and said to the guys, 'They are going to come at you, they stay in the game'. The patter of the game was exactly the same as at Manchester City.

"The one thing I will say is I think our guys came up against a different style, a different type of football, and that's not to say they were a long ball team, but they were quite direct and we didn't know how to deal with that.

"Once they got the ball from back to front, their front players came alive and were outstanding, and caused us all sorts of problems."

Carver added: "I am actually sitting here so disappointed because we were so good in the first half and so poor in the second half that we actually have got away with a point and we didn't deserve that.

"I said to Sean at the end of the game, 'We didn't deserve that', and I think he must have thought I was saying we should have won the game, but no, by no means. Burnley should have won the game.

"I have got two positives; 45 minutes of the first half and the fact that we haven't lost the game."

Dyche, who strode on the pitch at the end to congratulate his players before applauding the fans in the gods, said: "I thought the players were outstanding today.

"We felt there would be a reaction to the managerial situation here and for the first twenty minutes I felt they were excellent and we had to hang in there.

"At 2-1 down we have had to make the changes and from then on I thought the lads were absolutely outstanding. I have had many good moments so far as Burnley manager and that is up there among them.

"When you make three changes and you are 2-1 down, to deliver that type of performance at St. James' Park showed an outstanding mentality and belief in each other."

He also had a word for those fans on level 7. "There were 48,000 Geordies in here and 3,000 Burnley fans were just as good. They never stopped and that's because they are seeing a group who are giving everything," he said.

It was all change for a period in the first half. He said: "People have gone on about me not changing the team, but when we did make enforced changes today I thought they were fantastic and that's great credit to the substitutes because they know how much I value them.

"It's a new experience for me. I have never played with a team that has made three changes so early in the game, for all those different reasons and Kevin is the biggest question mark.

"It needs to settle and the medical team will get on that over the next couple of days. We are hopeful Shacks is not as bad as we maybe first thought and Dean is just sickness. He was vomiting before the game and it is a strange one, but it's not our style to feel sorry for ourselves.

"The mentality and physicality were on show again, along with the quality, and it's a head scratcher how we have only come away with a point.