You saw a group of players who are very motivated
Burnley took all three points yesterday at Bournemouth, coming from behind to win 3-1, and it was a result that left the Bournemouth, and former Burnley, boss concerned after another difficult day for his team.
They sit in 13th place in the table with 38 points, but Howe said: “I don’t know how many times I have to say it, we are not safe. I don’t consider myself safe either and the players are absolutely the same.
“We are not taking liberties and I can honestly say we have not done that. As the head of the team, I take responsibility. You make your own luck and we have to do that very quickly.”
Looking back at this latest defeat, he added: “We will always credit the opposition, but we did not deal well with Burnley’s threats and we didn’t deal with them well enough. We had enough chances to score more than one goal and that’s a huge frustration for us, but the biggest disappointment is that we didn’t turn the screw in the second half. We weren’t able to build pressure and that didn’t really come which is the biggest disappointment.
“The manner of all three goals is disappointing. We can’t make those types of errors against Burnley, but we have to take collective responsibility. We made too many bad decisions on the ball as well and we took Nathaniel Clyne off because he was on a yellow card. We have to be better next week.”
Sean Dyche was clearly delighted to follow up last week’s win with another victory. “Bournemouth are a tough side,” he said. “I know they have had a tricky spell, but here at home they are strong and we were ready to take on the challenge. They have a good home record here, but for us that’s 24 points now from 14 games, which is a very, very good return.
“We still have work to do, but today you saw a group of players who are very motivated, in a very thorough performance. You are always looking for the right mixture to win games and since Christmas we’ve found that. You could look right through the team today and the diligent, professional performances were there, along with the organisation.
“They made changes to try and get back into it, but we stayed organised and I was really pleased with the mentality. We went one down early, which was unfortunate, but we stayed clear minded and the players responded with a calmness and did all the things you have to do to win a game.”
He added: “We always knew this was going to be a really tough season, adjusting the players to the new challenges, but the mentality and belief has stayed strong and that is now paying us back, and that is because of their diligence and professionalism.
““Back to back wins put us in a far healthier situation, but all it does is remind us there is still work to do. There is still plenty of football to be played and we want to finish the season correctly.”
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