MICHAEL Keane believes Burnley need to be more ‘streetwise’ after suffering a fifth defeat in six away games at Stoke City on Saturday.

The Clarets were left furious when Charlie Adam chose to return the ball deep into the corner after Stephen Ward had put it out of play on halfway to allow Jonathan Walters to receive treatment, and the throw-in eventually led to Stoke’s second goal.

The home side should also have seen Marc Muniesa sent-off in the second half when he hauled back Andre Gray as he raced clear on goal, but he escaped with a booking as the Clarets striker did his best to stay on his feet.

“I think we’ve got to be more streetwise, like other teams are,” said Keane. “It’s not cheating. It’s just not a nice way to play. But they did it and ended up getting a goal from it. So maybe we’ve got to look at doing that more.”

Keane revealed the Clarets were disappointed at the break with what had transpired in the first half at the Bet365 Stadium.

“I think it was just that the players in general were frustrated with what happened. I think it’s pretty poor from them,” he said of Adam’s decision to give the ball back in the corner.

“So it was just more of a reaction that anything else. It’s something we need to do better. A lot of teams in the league do it. They go down when they get a little nudge, and they do little things like that. We’re probably too much of an honest group.”

Defeat in the Potteries means Burnley still have just a single point from their travels in the Premier League this season, but Keane believes they gave a truer reflection of themselves on Saturday then they have in other away games.

“I thought it was much better,” he said. “I thought we started the game really well in the first 10 minutes, couldn’t quite capitalise on the pressure we had.

“That was the story of the whole game. They scored two goals and didn’t create a lot in the game. The first goal’s pretty lucky. The second one’s a soft goal to concede. He’s run all the way from centre-back.

“Apart from that, which is obviously massive, I thought we played well, much better. We had a lot of the pressure but probably just needed a bit more quality in the final third to create chances and score.”

Sean Dyche had hinted at changes after the 4-0 defeat at West Brom and he altered both the system and personnel, and Keane said the aim was to transport a Turf Moor performance into an away games.

“We wanted to treat it like a home game. We’ve been really good at home,” the 23-year-old added.

“We got on the front foot early on, which was what we wanted to do.

“Obviously, it wasn’t in the plan to concede goals like that. But in the last few games, when we’ve conceded, our heads have gone down. That definitely didn’t happen.

“I think we rallied well in the second half. Nothing quite fell for us in the box. They should have had a man sent off. The decisions didn’t go our way. We’ve got to show more quality to get some goals.”