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It ended all square against Brighton today and the 1-1 result pleased both managers as Brighton retained their two point lead over us.

Brighton boss Graham Potter brought his team to Burnley just three days after beating Liverpool at Anfield but they couldn’t repeat that result. He said after the game: “It is an incredible effort from the players. Burnley put us under a lot of pressure in the second half and we could have gone under, but it’s another point at the end of a fantastic week and we are happy with that.

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“Burnley pushed us all the way and I can’t say we deserved more than a point. We had some control in the first half, but Burnley stepped up so I’m proud of the boys, we dug in when we weren’t at our best.

“Since the turn of the year we have picked up points consistently. You can’t play well in every game but I think it’s important that when you’re not at your max you pick up something and we have done that.”

Sean Dyche, while pleased with the point will be, like the rest of us, wondering how we didn’t go on and win the game after dominating the second half. “It’s at least a solid point and a bit of a head-scratcher how we haven’t won it,” he said.

“In the first half we weren’t a million miles away and I told them that at half time. It was just that in final third we needed a belief that we could change the game because that was the only bit I was frustrated with. We were waiting for the game to come our way and it doesn’t work like that. I called it good all-rightness, but all-rightness gets you nothing. I said we had to be better than alright in the second half and we did.

“The confidence came flooding back in and we pressed really well, created loads of problems for them and made 20-odd chances, which I’ve spoken about lately. There was quality in that number and four or five really good chances and that’s pleasing because Brighton are a good side and well organised defensively.”

He added: “We asked questions constantly and it wasn’t a massive shift. It was just a bit more awareness to come off the shape. I talk to them a lot about framework and freedom. The framework was good, but you have to be free to come off that and go and affect a game and we did that really well in the second half.

“I really fancied us all the way down to the line to go and nick another goal, with the way we were playing, so the only head scratcher is that you can look at that performance today and most people would wonder how we haven’t won it.”

There was a change up front for this game with Ashley Barnes coming back in after injury to partner Matěj Vydra. Dyche was pleased with them. “I thought they combined well, particularly in the second half,”” he said. “Barnesy got higher up the pitch and Vyds played well in stretching the pitch for us and came alive around the box.

“But there were so many good individual performances over the 90 minutes, and I have to be pleased with that because in that second half we were totally dominant; arguably one of the most dominant displays of the season so far.”

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