That three points already gives it a different twist

Last updated : 08 November 2014 By Tony Scholes

Bruce was not happy after the game, it's fair to say after a performance he described as nowhere near good enough.

He said: "It is very rare in two and a half years at the club that I can feel embarrassed enough to say sorry to supporters who have travelled on an awful afternoon in their thousands.

"I can obviously look at myself for making three substitutions before sixty minutes. It was obviously a gamble, but I have to tell you we were probably better with ten men than we were with eleven and that's a sad indictment of the first hour in particular when we were nowhere near the level which has seen us stay up in the Premier League and have a decent start to the season.

"That's just eroded all we've done because it was simply not good enough I have to tell you."

With Burnley without a win before today, he added: "We guarded against it, we knew we didn't want to be the first one. To be fair we've gifted Burnley their first win because we haven't kicked a ball in the first half.

"We've kicked it out, we've shanked it, we've miscontrolled it. We haven't had any real urgency about us to get a shot on target. We've just been a pale shadow of the team which I've seen two weeks ago so we'll have a look at it.

"The sad thing for me is they are all away on international duty because I simply haven't seen that in my two and a half years at the club."

For Dyche, it's a first winning media call since we beat Ipswich 1-0 in the last home game of last season. "It's great for everyone," he said. "The thing the fans believe is that we have a manager, a staff and a playing squad who will give them everything.

"I think they know that, and adding to that is that bit of quality to win a match, and we showed that today.

"If you were honest, in that first half I think we were absolutely excellent, against a Premier League team and it could have been a lot more comfortable in the end than it turned out.

"I thank the crowd because it's tough. They are human as we are and they can get nervous when chances are going, but they have stayed with the team and that's a vital ingredient. We want the players to play with that freedom and trust me, the best chance we have is with the crowd totally behind us.

"We have had challenges, and we will have more. That's not negative, it's the reality of the Premier League.

"It's really important that the people, the club and the town stay together in what we hope will be a very good season. It's reshaping already. That three points already gives it a different twist and it's amazing how much difference a win makes."

A win, but Dyche said of that run without one: "The facts are it has been an outside story. We knew we would win a game. We always had confidence in that, but it is literally one game, so now it's about two, three, four or five and whether we can go on the road and take that forward. What it does is it gives the lads that nice, inner warm glow over the weekend.

"Everyone knows the challenge and it's been hard for us as a club. It's been hard in the market and getting players in, and hard to get these players to understand they can compete and win at this level.

"There have been a couple of days when it hasn't gone our way, but that can happen in any division, and certainly in the Premier League.

"Generally though, I think performances have been decent and we should have scored more goals, of course, but today we did. All of that comes together with a win and the psychology just changes and we all think ok, we can compete and go and do it.

"Let's not forget we've played six of the top ten. That can't be underestimated, but there are teams who are not superpowers and it's now about how we combine performances to win games at the right time while not forgetting we can beat anyone."