SEAN Dyche insists he is not giving up on Burnley’s survival chances despite Saturday’s damaging 1-0 home loss to Leicester City.

Jamie Vardy’s goal just 59 seconds after Matt Taylor’s penalty miss consigned the Clarets to a crucial defeat against the relegation rivals at Turf Moor, leaving them five points adrift of safety with only four games left to play.

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Escaping from relegation will now be a mammoth task for a Burnley side who have won only five matches all season but Dyche is refusing to throw the towel in and pointed to Leicester’s surprise run of four straight victories as proof that the season is not yet over.

“They’ve just won four on the spin, so never say never,” said the Clarets boss.

“Of course it’s a tough ask, it’s been a tough ask all season.

“We’re not in new territory, we were written off a minute after getting up.

“We haven’t spent the resources of many others, even Leicester, who had two centre forwards costing £17m.

“But I believed in the team all season and still do. We bring the games on, take them forwards and see what we can get.

“The challenge is right in front of us, it’s tough, but it’s doable.

“In a weird way, when people seem you are at your weakest, you can be at your strongest, so we’ve got to make the tide turn.

“There’s only us who can do it. We’ve created enough chances in the last seven or eight games to win games, and we haven’t taken them.

“That’s the responsibility we have, myself, the coaches and the team. That’s what wins you games because we’ve been solid at the back. They hardly had a chance.”

Dyche admitted the manner of Saturday’s defeat was harsh on his team.

“The game is cruel sometimes, and it was at its cruelest today,” the manager reflected.

“We miss a penalty and they score 60 seconds later from a knock into the box, into a dangerous area, which can cause trouble, and it did.

“It’s just the cruel side of football.”

The manager attached no blame to Taylor and was happy for the midfielder to take the penalty ahead of Danny Ings.

Ings scored from the spot against Aston Villa in November and also took a number of penalties last season, although this was the first time Burnley had won a spot kick with Taylor on the field.

Dyche said: “Matty’s got a history of taking them, he gets it, grabs the ball. It’s a great sign when they do that.

“He struck it well, his heel just shifted as he hit it, so I don’t know if he just dragged it a bit.

“He sent the keeper the wrong way, and it’s just one of those things. It looked to me there was only one person who wanted it, and that was Matty.

“He gripped the ball, he wanted it, simple as that. I’ve got no problem with that.

“The game was bigger than that moment, although that was obviously a big moment.

“The performance has been good enough to win the game, particularly second half, but we haven’t won.

“It’s a blow to us, but we’ve been written off all season, so it’s not new territory for us.”

Dyche will assess Sam Vokes this week after the striker missed Saturday’s match through injury.

“Vokesy pulled his thigh on Friday, so he didn’t make it unfortunately,” he said.

“We’ll see how quickly it settles.”