SEAN Dyche felt Joey Barton's honesty had prevented him from ending the counter attack that led to Manchester United opening the scoring in their 2-0 win at Turf Moor.

Anthony Martial was carrying the ball over the halfway line just ahead of Barton early in the move, but the Clarets midfielder opted not to haul the United striker back and a matter of seconds later the same man was slotting beyond Tom Heaton.

Dyche felt the 34-year-old would normally have committed the foul and taken the booking, but said his belief he could still nick the ball off Martial had influenced his decision making.

"The first was a really poor goal," the Clarets chief said. "Joey knows the game and it’s the unfortunate side of the game but he should make a foul and that kills the move. If that move continues with sides of this quality then can hurt you as they did.

"I wouldn’t say it was a no-brainer, because you want your players to play in the right manner as best they can, but with his experience, usually, he would make the foul.

"It’s his honesty because he’s running shoulder to shoulder with him and I think he generally thought he could get a foot in, but by the time he probably could've he’s released the ball and continued the run.

"The second one is frustrating, we dealt with it in the initial spell but then there’s a mix-up. It’s very rare the ball would sneak under Tom Heaton and then sneak under Keano and hit him on the inside of his foot.

"It was a bit of a lucky break but once these teams get one up, never mind two up, it’s really difficult. I was pleased with the mentality after that though, to continue to try and force an opening."

Defeat to United means it is just one win in 11 Premier League games for Burnley and the gap to the bottom three is back to just five points with four games to go.

But Dyche believes his side have had a tough run of fixtures, and he isn't too concerned about their current predicament.

"The fact is you’re playing the top end. We’ve had seven out of 11 games away and within that 11 we’ve played five out of the top six," he said.

"On paper it looked like a tough run and it was always going to be, especially with the form Everton are in at there place and then Manchester United 22 unbeaten before today.

"We’ve cheated the system a few times in what people think of a game, but you can’t do all the time. We’ve done it well here, we’ve played some teams who are well fancied here and taken 10 Premier League wins.

"It’s points on the board. I’ve said many times, away form, home form, it all goes out of the window in the Premier League because it’s just points on the board when you’re us.

"When you look at the points on the board now and historically with our last two efforts we’re in good shape, against all the olds, no-one gave us any chance at all."

Dyche said Scott Arfield and Sam Vokes had both been close to making the matchday 18 and should have recovered from knee and hamstring problems respectively for next week's trip to Crystal Palace.

But Ben Mee saw his record as an ever present in the Premier League this season end when he came off at half-time with a shin injury, and Dyche said he would be given a couple of days off to try and rest a recurring problem.

"He’s been managing it really, it was getting sorer and sorer and we have to make a decision," he said.

"We’ll give him a few days off now to rest it and hopefully it will settle down."