SEAN Dyche admitted Chris Wood only narrowly missed out on a start at West Ham, before the Kiwi striker made another impact from the bench.

The Clarets' record signing had made his return from injury as a second half substitute against Everton a week earlier, scoring the winning goal as Burnley came from behind to claim victory.

So it was something of a surprise to see the £15million back amongst the substitutes at the London Stadium.

This time he came off the bench on the hour mark and again made a significant impact, setting up Ashley Barnes for the opening goal before scoring twice himself, and Dyche revealed it had been a close call as to whether Wood had started.

“To be honest, we thought they might come out with a bit of energy, on the front foot, and we might have to absorb some of the game. We were hoping not to, but thought we might have to," the Clarets chief said.

“We have got a stronger squad now we’ve got people fit again, so we can be more pro-active from the bench.

“It worked last week, and this week, but it was a very fine margin as to whether Woody started."

Again Wood come on for Jeff Hendrick, who has returned to operating in a number 10 role in recent weeks, which Dyche admits isn't necessarily his best position.

The Republic of Ireland international has come in for some criticism from the stands in recent weeks, but Dyche defended his work in that role.

“Jeff’s done a good job in there when it’s not really his natural position,” the Clarets chief said.

“But I trust the players to go out and deliver performances, and they have to be different types of performances - we have to find different ways of winning in the Premier League, it’s not as easy to just roll teams over, we have to work in different ways and today we found two different halves, and we found a win.”

Having gone 11 league games without a win Burnley now begin an extended break after back-to-back wins, which have cemented their grip on seventh place.

Dyche will give his players a rest now before the trip to West Brom on March 31.

“To get two wins back to back in the Premier League is brilliant for any team. We’d obviously prefer another game, but everyone is in the same boat," he said.

“We’ll get some downtime, some training time, and the internationals will go away and we’ll get ready for the next one."