Dyche: Hammers Deserved Victory

“There was a good edge to them and they have pace and work well in transition, so although we scored first, if we see that game through at 1-0 for a bit longer, there are no guarantees and I thought they deserved to win.

“However, I actually thought our performance was pretty strong. West Ham have been showing that all season and although they have had one or two ups and downs lately, they brought a tempo tonight, and we’ve not gone far wrong really.

“It was two soft goals by our standards; especially the second one because we didn’t focus on, or read the cross, and we’ve plenty of bodies in there, but their lad takes a chance and scores a goal.

“But a lot of our performance I was pleased with and I wasn’t overly critical.”

The Clarets typically hung in the game, repelling waves of Hammers’ attacks before coming close to a late equaliser when Jay Rodriguez fired wide at the second attempt from six yards after Josh Brownhill had been brilliantly denied by Lucasz Fabianski.

“We stuck in the game and we were working hard to get the equaliser and so nearly did through Jay, but equally we’ve had to defend well and make some really important blocks and saves,” added Dyche.

“We just came up against a good outfit tonight and you could tell by the way they were cheering at the end that they thought that was a big win, because of what they are trying to achieve.

“But we’ve been consistent lately in our performances and I don’t think we’ve got all the points we’ve deserved from that consistency.

“We’ve come a long way though and the thing for me is that our fitness and our tempo was good.

“Some of the detail still needs to improve, particularly in transition, because they are a side that play in that manner and they are good at it - and we gave the ball away cheaply too many times.

“It’s never easy and there are tough games still to come - but everyone has tough games.

“We’ve got four big games coming up and we are in a strong position. Now it’s about capitalising on that and keeping out performance levels right.”