SEAN Dyche praised his fringe players who rose to the occasion to help Burnley beat Watford at Turf Moor.

Scott Arfield came in for the stricken Robbie Brady and scored the only goal of the game while Kevin Long saw his first Premier League action of the season, replacing the injured Ben Mee, and helped the Clarets to a seventh league clean sheet of the campaign.

The 1-0 win over the Hornets saw Burnley cement their stranglehold on seventh place and Dyche was pleased his squad depth shone through.

"I did say he has the habit of putting it in some nets...it’s a great finish, a really calm finish," he said of Arfield.

“I’m pleased for him because it’s hard coming in when you’re not playing regularly, and he’s worked ever so hard and delivered a fine performance. As the game grew he was finding better passes.

“I'm really pleased with Kev, it’s a funny one for him, he’s had to wait a long time for different spells of playing in the team, but he’s been working diligently all the time. His professionalism has been outstanding, as has the whole group.

“I just commended them again, we’ve had to make changes, but these lads work very hard away from playing, and it’s very tough, I’ve been a player and you want to play.

“Sometimes I’ve had to leave players off the bench even, which you wouldn’t want to, but the players deserve a lot of credit for their professional standards.

“When they come in, they’re ready to play. Great admiration for the players who aren’t playing."

The win over Marco Silva's men was the Clarets' eighth in 16 league games this season and Burnley never really looked in trouble after taking the lead moments after Watford had Marvin Zeegelaar sent-off.

“It’s not easy to win games in the Premier League, but we had the chances and scored a couple that were chalked off - they’re delicate decisions," Dyche said.

“They went down to 10 men, and then its the old favourite, sometimes the hardest ones to win are the ones you’re meant to, but I think we saw the game thoroughly through.

“I must mention their keeper, he’s made two top-class saves from Johann, and a couple other decent saves, so we’ve done enough to win the game, I’m sure of that.

“We didn’t start very well, credit to them, and then we started to grow into the game and the feeling in the stadium started to change.

“Our players started getting on the front foot, then the sending off makes it different, but it was a thorough performance again and I’m very pleased overall."

Burnley saw two goals controversially ruled out for offside, and Dyche added: “I’ve no complaints if the decisions are right, but the second one I can’t work out. I’m serious, our player goes to play Wood in, Barnesy’s foot is half an inch offside, but he’s nothing to do with that bit.

“Then their lad clears it onto one of their players, and now Barnesy is not offside and whacks it in the back of the net.

“Pick the bones out of that one. I don’t know, is it offside, is it not offside? There’s that many things happened.

“But the main thing I look at is the score."