SEAN Dyche could not help but feel vindicated as he watched Tom Heaton crucially deny Dusan Tadic from the penalty spot in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Southampton.

The Burnley boss, whose side went on to triumph thanks to a deflected Ashley Barnes effort, cast his mind back to the summer of 2013 when the largely unheralded Heaton arrived on a free transfer - having been released by Bristol City following the Robins’ relegation to League One.

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Within weeks fellow goalkeepers Alex Cisak, Nick Liversedge and Danijel Nizic would also arrive, to the confusion of some supporters.

“Tom was one of four keepers I signed, my first signings at the club, and I got absolutely slaughtered for signing four keepers as my first signings!” Dyche chuckles now.

“I think people might have changed their views considerably by now.

“We take great value in Tom, what he’s doing and how he goes about his business on a daily basis, not just what you see on a football pitch. He’s been recognised as a very good goalkeeper.

“You need a scratch of luck and we got that with the goal but it can’t be said with the penalty save because I think that was an outstanding save rather than a miss.

“They are the margins and we’ve been on the wrong side of those margins at times, and sometimes undeservedly so.

“Overall I think that little scratch of luck that went in our favour on Saturday was probably well deserved.”

Southampton, together with Chelsea, have the joint highest number of clean sheets in the Premier League this season after seven shut-outs from their first 16 matches.

But Heaton has now helped Burnley to five clean sheets themselves, a fact Dyche is proud of.

“Goalkeepers love a clean sheet, as do the back four, as do the team here actually,” said the boss.

“We’ve built that mentality where the team take great pride in how they defend from the front.

“We have a way of being resilient enough to get wins and results, and on Saturday we got the win.

“We got our fifth clean sheet in 15 games, which is a marker in itself at this level.”

Dyche reserved praise for defender Ben Mee, who battled through 74 minutes despite feeling ill ahead of the match.

With Stephen Ward absent with a fractured ankle, Mee’s withdrawal led to a Premier League debut for Danny Lafferty.

“Ben Mee has been ill for two days, that’s why he went off, but he delivered a fine performance,” Dyche said.

“Laffers has been sitting waiting his turn but credit to him for delivering the performance he did.”

And the boss paid tribute to striker Ashley Barnes, who followed up his matchwinner against Hull last month with the only goal of Saturday’s game - albeit thanks to a deflection.

“I thought he was terrific at QPR last week, I only took him off because he’d given everything and I thought he just ran out of energy,” Dyche said.

“He can be an awkward customer, he’s a newcomer at this level and people would not know much about it.

“But he really does stick at it. His stats are through the roof, he’ll give you everything.”