JEFF Hendrick believes Burnley are beginning to prove people wrong as they shed their long ball tag.

The Clarets midfielder was on the end of a 24-pass move to fire his side to a 1-0 victory over Everton at Goodison Park. It was the latest example of Burnley’s change of style this season as Sean Dyche’s side look to be better in possession.

Only one Premier League goal so far this season - Fabian Delph’s for Manchester City against Crystal Palace - has come after more passes than Burnley’s winner yesterday, which involved nine visiting players.

And Hendrick believes the Clarets are changing perceptions after a composed display on Merseyside extended their unbeaten away start.

“We get branded with being a long ball team and there will be times like that but we always pass and move, penetrate and create something,” the 25-year-old said.

“People have branded us with one style of playing but I think we’re slowly proving them wrong and showing we can score all sorts of goals.

“We’ve got confidence in the group from what we’ve done last year. We’ve proved everyone wrong and this year we’re doing it again and stepping on.

“We’ve got a great group here, everyone is fighting hard and working hard every day in training. We go in to every match wanting to get a result and I think that’s showing.

“Hopefully we can slowly change the perception that people have of us. I think we’ve played some great football this year. We get called a long ball team but we don’t mind that; we’ve got confidence in the group and we just want to keep that going.”

Stephen Ward provided the final pass for Hendrick to fire home his first goal of the season, and the match-winner added: “It was a great cross for the goal. Wardy has done great, pulled it back to me and luckily it went in.

“It’s hard to think back but the goal is definitely the best at Burnley. I’ve been told that there was 20-odd passes and nearly everyone touched the ball so I was happy to be on the end of it.

“The lads worked the ball well from side to side and then there was a great switch across. Thankfully I was on the end of it and it was a great goal.

“That gets me off the mark and I’ll try and get more.”

Hendrick also hailed the Burnley back four as the Clarets held on to their lead in the second half with a mature display. They are now unbeaten this season from away games at Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton.

“We came here with a job to do, we got the goal, made it hard for them, stopped them, they converted to a lot of long shots and we frustrated them a bit,” the Republic of Ireland midfielder added.

“We’ve been getting a bit of stick off different people so we knew that we had to come here and make the game about us. We had to put our style of play on them, we got our goal, they grew in to the second half, changed formation, they pushed a lot of people forward.

“It was difficult but we ground it out as a team. They put a lot of balls in to the box but the lads at the back were clearing balls and getting bodies in the way. They were brilliant.”