We should have been 3-0 up before they scored

“I’m delighted and I thought we deserved it,” said Warnock. “We played some good stuff and should have scored more than two. I was glad the lads played without fear, the confidence is coming back.

“I thought the back four were solid, particularly the middle two although if I’m honest Jagielka shouldn’t have come out for the second half, he had a groin injury.”

He’s never offered any positive comments about Burnley in the past, he scandalously attacked our attitude when he was at Oldham and when Waddle was Burnley manager and we all know about things over the last few years.

But this time he did say, “To be fair to Burnley they came with two up front and it made for a better game, it was very open.”

Bramall Lane is now another of these grounds where the atmosphere has been ruined and on Saturday you hardly heard their crowd all afternoon. It was surprising then to hear Warnock end by saying, “I thought the crowd were appreciative as well. They responded to the publicity in my programme notes that I wanted them to back us.”

Steve Cotterill will be pleased to have finally got that two week rest for his players but he knew that they could so easily have flown out with our first positive result at Bramall Lane for years.

“Goals change games and if we had taken our chances in the first half we could have been four goals up quite easily,” said the Clarets’ boss.

“But we didn’t take them, and they go and get one and all of a sudden it’s a different game. We should have been 3-0 up before they scored and then we’ve had another good chance after that.

“If you go in 4-1 up, it is game over and then you read Neil’s programme notes and the crowd can be a bit edgy here.”

Looking at the second goal which many behind the goal thought was offside he said, “All season to be fair we have come out in a back four from a goal kick, but today Gary Cahill, who has been magnificent for us, came out a little off centre to the others and it always leaves a crack.

“The ball went through to their lad who is probably being played onside. My gut feeling tells me we played him onside and the second goal makes it a different game. I don’t blame individuals and they’re only human, so you will get mistakes from time to time.

“It all meant that our goal at the end was nothing more than a consolation goal. It could have been interesting, but we just couldn’t push on and get a second.”

He’s ready for that rest for his players now and said about that, “I thought Ade looked a little rusty and he looked as though he hadn’t played for two and a half months and we had other players who looked as though they’d had too many games in the last two and a half months.

“We couldn’t even strike a happy medium today and that break is a welcome one for us. We’ve had a couple of tough months and Tuesday’s game was one too many let alone this one.”

He ended with words of praise for Lee Roche who played in the centre of midfield after Tony Grant failed to recover from the groin injury he picked up at Wolves.

“I thought he did well in the centre with Micah Hyde. I only asked him on the bus if he’d ever played in there before and he said at school. He had a go in there and did a decent job whilst I also thought we missed John McGreal immensely today.”