Dyche backing for Burnley forwards

05 October 2014 21:46

Boss Sean Dyche lifted the pressure off his strikers and backed them to fire despite Burnley's goal drought setting a new club record.

Michael Kightly ended 10 hours and 55 minutes without a goal in their 2-2 draw at Leicester on Saturday.

It set a club record by four minutes, the previous one dating back to 1970, before Ross Wallace pinched a point with a last-gasp free kick.

Dyche said: "The question marks have been there for obvious reasons. We believe as a group we can operate at this level, certainly compete, and we kind of have done, barring last Sunday.

"Goals have been hard to come by, that's for sure, and that goal acted as a release, and then we go and get a second, and they feel a bit more relaxed about it. They don't get any pressure from me by the way, none of them.

"Brian Clough said scoring is the hardest thing in the world. He actually said it to Teddy Sheringham, before reminding him that he'd managed it 251 times in 274 games, but that was a typical Brian Clough moment.

"I know that; I don't put any pressure on our strikers. They've got the freedom to go and score goals and I believe they will come for our strikers."

Lukas Jutkiewicz set up Kightly's strike, which cancelled out Jeff Schlupp's opener, and is yet to score since his £1.5million summer move from Middlesbrough but Dyche is pleased with his efforts.

"He's doing well. I just said to him, try and believe a little bit more." he said. "He's had chances and it'll come but he's another one, a young man learning his trade at a higher level, and it is a higher level, a tough level, make no mistakes. But he's going about his business in the right manner."

Burnley have been without the injured Danny Ings and Sam Vokes but ex-Bournemouth striker Ings is expected back after the international break following his hamstring problem.

The Clarets are still winless and the point lifted them off the bottom of the Barclays Premier League after their horror 4-0 defeat at West Brom but Dyche insisted they need more.

"One result doesn't define the next result. But what I do know is that this was more like how I expect the team to perform," he said.

"I use the term doomed flippantly. But I realise people will think the challenge is huge for a club like Burnley, we haven't spent a lot of money, we haven't played regularly in the Premier League. But we have got a group who are very honest, who want to learn, who want to improve - and they want the challenge."

Riyad Mahrez's goal looked like winning it for Leicester before Wallace struck deep into stoppage time

It denied the Foxes a second home win of the season and midfielder Dean Hammond insisted they deserved victory.

"We're disappointed, we deserved to win even if we weren't at our best. We'll take point and move on. There are a lot of positives, unfortunately we conceded a couple but that's the way it goes. We've had a decent start to the season," he told Foxes Player.

"We're unbeaten at home and would like a few points but it was a fortress last year and it's starting to look like that again. Everyone wants to play in the Premier League, that's what we worked so hard for.

"I'm loving every minute. It's a challenge every week but I think we've performed well and we are looking forward to the rest of the season."

Source: PA