Dyche plays down Burnley´s European ambitions

Burnley won their fourth successive Premier League game to strengthen their grip on seventh, but Sean Dyche is not getting carried away by talk of Europe.

The Clarets fell behind at Watford on Saturday as Roberto Pereyra struck shortly after the hour, but substitute Sam Vokes scored with his first touch to level and Jack Cork netted just three minutes later to turn things around.

Dyche’s side held out for the remaining 17 minutes to secure a 2-1 success and move six points clear of eighth-placed Leicester City, who suffered defeat by the same scoreline at home to Newcastle United.

If FA Cup semi-finalists Southampton do not go on to lift the trophy, seventh spot will be good enough for a place in the Europa League third qualifying round, but Dyche refused to get ahead of himself with six games still to come.

Vokesy!!!!! pic.twitter.com/e6ivR5ToHt

— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) April 7, 2018

“There’s a lot of games to go, a lot of football to be played, but the lads have put themselves in a good position to be thinking that,” he told Sky Sports.

“The reward for the lads is going into the final few games of the season, knowing the first marker has been achieved, now they all enjoy their football.

“We know we didn’t play well, but found a way. Think we had a scratch of luck, doing the ugly stuff, all that is important

“We’re not going to slick it around every week, we played well at West Brom and West Ham, but a different way to win, blood and guts and working hard.”

SD: “I told Vokesy when he came on that if he didn’t score in 30 seconds he wasn’t playing next week.”  pic.twitter.com/2EJdqBlQ93

— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) April 7, 2018

Dyche’s opposite number Javi Gracia, meanwhile, was left frustrated after seeing the Hornets surrender a strong position.

“I think we dominated for most of the game, had more possession, more shots on target, 10 corners to one, but it wasn’t enough, we should have killed the game and we didn’t,” he said.

“They didn’t surprise us, we knew their style of play, we lost in a similar way in the last game with two set-pieces, OK we are not happy we’ll try to do better next time.

“I thought we were ready to defend this and improve in those situations, we conceded two goals from two free-kicks, we need to improve.

“They score two goals in three minutes, we tried to work on this we are conceding the last two games many goals this way, and we are losing points.”