Burnley boss Howe proud of players despite defeat

“I’m bitterly disappointed but proud of the players for their efforts. I thought we deserved all three points, particularly for our defensive display but it’s heart-breaking to concede with the last kick of the game, the lads didn’t deserve that. But really proud of their efforts and the way they defended. They defended crosses magnificently. We can take great heart from it but ultimately we left with nothing.

“Defensively I can’t speak highly enough of the players and that includes everybody because our midfield had to do a real shift and get behind the ball because we’ve had to defend very deep. Our centre forward was quite isolated but Charlie and Sam worked extremely hard. It does show that we’ve come a long way in a short period of time because I’m not sure we’d have produced that performance at the start of the season.

“Fantastic goal from Charlie and he’s been doing it all season. He was unfortunate to pick up an injury when he did because he was flying at the time and now we’ve got four excellent strikers to choose from and I’m spoilt for choice. Charlie was given his opportunity today and he took it.

“We felt we’d done enough and restricted them to long range shooting. We’d crowded areas and made it difficult for them. Andros Townsend was an obvious threat, I thought he was excellent on the day and he’s a Premier League player. He was always a thorn in our side and the main aim was to try to keep him quiet. With the two goals we were really unfortunate with the first and very unfortunate with the second.

“Lee (Grant) has done everything right. He’s coming for crosses, he’s punched well when under pressure and he’s saved numerous goal-scoring opportunities. I think he’s been excellent the last few games and he didn’t deserve that. But we have to take it on the chin, it’s a setback, but it’s a positive one in the fashion of our performance.