We need to be more ruthless

Perhaps he is so used to getting big wins against Stan Ternent’s Burnley (a six and a five with Man City and a six with Ipswich) that he was not struck on us actually making some attempt at defending.

It is one thing to complain about us being the best side defensively in the division but surely he is guilty of bringing the game into disrepute by accusing us of cheating in the way he has.

“Burnley can play 4-5-1, 4-6-0 or 0-11”, he said after the game. “I don’t care and it is not my business, but the referee has to take a hand and I thought there were at least eight minutes wasted, never mind five.

“There was mass time wasting and in the end that has nearly seen them through. They came here not to lose and nearly won it, but we kept trying to play even though it wasn’t always pretty and sometimes, when it is not quite your day, you take a point.

“it tool a long time to wind up, but we hit the woodwork four times, missed chances, their keeper made saves and we should have had a blatant penalty – so I think we deserved something out of it.”

But worse still Royle then accused us of cheating. “They caught us with our pants down for the goal, but at least we tried to win it and I thought it was quite fitting that we scored the equaliser while one of their players was feigning injury. Sometimes there is justice.”

What an incredible comment from Royle that we came not to lose – too damn true we did and I can tell you that not losing was one hell of a lot better than the 6-1 defeat there a year ago.

Burnley boss Steve Cotterill reacted to the disgraceful Royle and made no apologies for the way we played.

“People are going to criticise and there is nothing I can do about that,” he claimed. “We have to play with what we have and it has been like that all season. It would be nice to have a few more bodies, but what are we meant to do? If we haven’t got it, we can’t afford them.

“I’m not going to tell my players to time waste but they are taking the sting out of the game because Ipswich are a good side, then that is different. Ipswich will give teams a good thumping at Portman Road, but we haven’t deliberately gone out to waste time.

After his reaction to the dreadful Royle the Burnley boss spoke about the performance. “Obviously we are disappointed to lose a goal in the last minute but we should have killed the game off with a second goal long before then,” he said.

“We could have scored three or four goals in the second half and if we’d have got a second goal it would have sealed the win. I’ve said it before, but we need to be more ruthless away from home and start killing games off.”