Dyche: Clean Sheets The Key

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2020-11-23T18:30:00.000Z

Dyche: Clean Sheets The Key

2020-11-23T18:30:00.000Z

Sean Dyche felt his battling players deserved their first league win of the season to move out of the Premier League’s bottom three.

Chris Wood’s early goal, and two big second half saves from Nick Pope - after Johann Berg Gudmundsson had hit the crossbar - edged the Clarets past Crystal Palace on a nervy night at Turf Moor.

And Dyche feels that keeping it clean has been the bedrock of his side’s upturn in fortunes.

“The way we saw it through tonight was very pleasing,” said the Burnley boss. “All the characteristics we’ve had to show down the years were on show and the players deserve a lot of credit.

“They’ve deserved that. They’ve had to work hard for it, but it’s easy to forget that’s three clean sheets now in the last five games.

“That can be overlooked because you haven’t won a game, but it’s a building block.

“It doesn’t mean you win a game, but it’s a big step in the right direction if you are keeping clean sheets and we have been good at that down the years.

“Tonight was a step in the right direction, but nothing more because there is loads of work to be done.

“Nothing has been achieved, but the monkey is off our back and the noise all goes away and we can move on.”

Wood struck in the eighth minute, pouncing on the recalled Jay Rodriguez’s lay off to fire home his second goal of the campaign.

Gudmundsson had a golden chance to double the advantage after being set free by Dwight McNeil, but struck the face of the crossbar with a rising drive with just the Eagles goalkeeper to beat.

And it was left to England stopper Pope to seal the victory, first with a sprawling leg to deny Michy Batshuayi and in the dying seconds clawing away Christian Benteke’s prodded effort from point-blank range.

Dyche added: “It was a big save right at the end to make sure we got the clean sheet.

“That’s a fantastic save; throwing yourself in and giving everything for the cause and the team and with a chance of getting hurt.

“In the end we ended up digging it out in the last 15 minutes because, let’s face it, there’s a bit of nervousness about.

“We haven’t taken our chances, we’re 1-0 up and the players know that first win is important; not just getting the points, but psychologically.”

Dyche, who revealed second half substitute Robbie Brady suffered a hamstring injury that ended his night prematurely, added: “In the first half I thought we were really good.

“We asked questions, mixed the play, kept the ball well and put pressure on them.

“In the second half we had a really golden chance through Johann to kill it off. Before the game we were talking about creating a better quality of chance and we certainly did that – and then you end up wondering if it’s going to be one of those nights. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.”