There is a group of players here who give you every inch of what they’ve got
Burnley beat Southampton 1-0 today at the Turf meaning it was not the best of first visits for the Saints’ manager Claude Puel.
He saw his side go down to a Joey Barton free kick and said afterwards: “We know it’s difficult to play against this team. They are a physical team with long balls, second balls and free kicks.
“I think we can do a strong game to resist, to win duels and after the recovery to play and we had many chances, like Dusan (Tadic) in the first half and it was the same in the second half.
“It’s difficult to accept this loss after this game because we can have many chances without opportunity for the opponent and a free kick is sufficient for them.
“We need to score more because with all the chances, you can lose the game like today and it’s a big disappointment because they did strong work. It’s incredible to lose the game after all these possibilities, without opportunities for the opponent.”
Sean Dyche was certainly a happy man after the game and knew he would be asked about goalscorer Joey Barton. “Joey has an interesting story,” he said. “Each time you turn a new page you don’t know what’s going to come next.”
“I am please for him and us,” he added. “I felt he slipped straight back into life with us and, unfortunately, Deano picked up a niggly hamstring so we had to take him off. Joey has then come on and got us the goal.
“He has worked so hard since he’s been back here and I tend to believe in people I’ve worked with. I know what he offers and he has an interesting life to say the least. Today is another strange twist in that life.
“But it’s about more than Joey remember. There is a group of players here who give you every inch of what they’ve got and that’s something I take great pride in.”
Dyche added: “Southampton are a really good side, I think. I know they had lost three on the trot, but I’d seen those performances and they weren’t those type of games. We knew we were in for a tough task today and they certainly brought the game to us off the back of a good result in midweek.
“They came with a tempo, will and demand to get us on the back foot, and they did for spells in the first half. What I was pleased with was our mental focus to keep doing the basics and be in the game.
“In the second half it balances out as it went on and we know our players are more than capable of going until the last whistle blows. That was on show in the last 15 minutes, when we started to get on the front foot, so I am just so pleased overall.
“It felt like a tight game all day and keeping a clean sheet is so difficult. You are playing against so many good players every week at this level, so it makes it so demanding.
“Tom made a really important double save there at the end. I was delighted at his focus because before then he’d had clean hands, but not much meaningful to do because of the performance of the defensive unit, but it was a fantastic double save.
“It’s a really strong set of results we are putting together at home. We are humble with how we work through and we’re not making out we are the real deal. I think we have a group who don’t get carried away and know the demands of this league. We’ve made sense of that and they’ll know when the whistle blows again we have to be on top of our performance levels.”
Follow UpTheClarets:Share this page :