BURNLEY manager Sean Dyche felt his players did not deserve to end the calendar year on a high against Leicester City, because they weren’t up to scratch.

The Clarets were flat from the word go on Saturday, with injury to Charlie Austin compounding a frustrating first half.

The introduction of Sam Vokes from the bench just before the hour sparked life into an otherwise lacklustre display. Martin Paterson forced Kasper Schmeichel into a couple of saves as Burnley looked to cancel out David Nugent’s first-half opener.

But Dyche conceded that a point in their last game of 2012 would not have been fully warranted.

“We could have nicked a draw but it would have been nicking it,” said the Clarets boss.

“I don’t think we did enough to win the game, we didn’t use the ball well enough or keep the ball well enough.

“We did make some chances to be fair and we had a very good one right at the end to nick a point but I think with our performances levels a point would have probably been the best we could have got.

“I thought it was a really poor goal from our point of view defensively. We’ve been very good defensively since I’ve been here but that was a really soft one.”

Dyche added: “We were flat in the first half – the whole feel of it was flat, the game in general – we conceded a soft goal and then kind of responded but without the urgency we’ve had lately.

“We made a few changes which nearly worked. It was a close thing but not close enough, but generally speaking I thought the performance level wasn’t good enough for what we want to do here.”

Burnley are close to the end of a run of four games in 10 days, from which they have so far taken three points. But Dyche said they could not look to a hectic festive schedule as an excuse for leaving Turf Moor empty handed on Saturday.

“Everyone says how busy it is but if you look at the beginning of the season you play Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday for a number of weeks,” he said.

“I don’t think it’s radically different. Maybe because of the stuff going on with everyone’s families and Christmas it is, but with the physical side of things I’m not worried about the players.

“They’ll be ready to respond (tomorrow), and respond we will.”