The bigger picture is to keep winning
It’s league leaders Hull at the Turf tomorrow and a meeting between two managers Sean Dyche and Steve Bruce who have the utmost respect for each other.
Bruce got the upper hand on Boxing Day and when told it was our last league defeat, he said: “It doesn’t surprise me. The way they have performed under Sean Dyche in the last two or three years, there is a certain resilience about them.
“They showed that when they won promotion, they showed it in the Premier League although, like us, they weren’t quite good enough to stay there, and you know that when you play against them they’re going to be well drilled. “They know what they’re doing and they’re a really good Championship team.
“They take some beating on their own patch so we’ll have to be at our best. We beat them handsomely at home but I don’t think that counts for anything now. That is how the Championship works.
“You can go and watch a team one week and then the next and they’re totally different. This league goes up and down and we’ve experienced that. Whatever we did on Boxing Day counts for nothing, this is a new game at a place where we haven’t done well over the years, so let’s go and get a result if we can.
“Burnley are in a rich vein of form. We know how difficult it is going to be and, apparently, it’s going to be a horrible afternoon weather-wise in terms of wind and rain. It’s going to be a very difficult game but that is what the Championship is.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to widen the gap if we can. These are the games when a draw maintains the gap and a win can widen it, and with a game in hand that would help the cause.”
At Hull on Boxing Day it was 0-0 until into the second half when things went wrong for us. Dyche said: “It was a tight affair at their place, but we have got even stronger since then so it will be a good game.
“We are really quite pleased with how we’re going ourselves and I know our fans are enjoying it too, so we are really looking forward to the game. I think they all have that feel of a big game at this time of the year in the rundown of the season.
“When you play the teams around you at the top, there is always the feeling that it is an important game. At the end of the year that league table doesn’t count for nothing other than the amount of points you have.
“No one cares who you have beaten along the way. However, it is very helpful if you do beat the teams around you and we know that. The bigger picture though, is to keep winning.”
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