BURNLEY had to settle for a point in their final game of 2017 but they will feel they should have had all three from a trip to Huddersfield they dominated.

The Clarets were the better side throughout on their trip over the Pennines and they missed plenty of chances to bring the curtain down on a memorable year in steal.

They were also denied a clear penalty in the second half when Jeff Hendrick was brought down by Jonas Lossl.

But with results going their way the point at the John Smith’s Stadium extended Burnley’s lead in seventh over the chasing pack, with Sean Dyche’s men now holding a seven-point cushion over Leicester City and Everton.

Nick Pope was the first goalkeeper called into action, pushing Colin Quaner’s drive over the bar, but after that it was a first half dominated by the Clarets.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson was at the heart of it, tormenting Scott Malone down the right-hand flank. The Iceland winger could have opened the scoring when he showed nimble footwork to slip between Malone and Jonathan Hogg but from inside the area his low shot was the wrong side of the post.

Gudmundsson then turned architect, squaring for Steven Defour who slashed a shot from the edge of the area just wide before crossing for Scott Arfield who glanced a header wide.

Memories of Old Trafford came flooding back when Defour stood over a free-kick 25-yards from goal, but this time his effort glanced off the wall and over, with Ashley Barnes heading the resulting corner over the bar.

On the stroke of half-time Gudmundsson slipped a ball through to Barnes, who saw his shot deflected behind by Florent Hadergjonaj.

The break had done little to change the flow of the game and Arfield missed the chance to make a major impact on his return to Huddersfield, bursting between two defenders into the area only to see his left-footed effort saved by Lossl.

The Clarets were denied a clear penalty on the hour mark as Arfield and Hendrick combined before the latter rounded Lossl in the six-yard box, going down when the Town goalkeeper clipped his standing leg, only for Paul Tierney to wave away the appeals.

Nahki Wells came off the bench to try and inflict some pain on his former side and he almost did just that, sliding in to poke fellow substitute Sam Vokes’ knockdown towards goal only for Lossl to make the save with his legs.

Vokes had one last chance to grab all three points for the Clarets, but in injury-time he beat Lossl to Phil Bardsley’s cross but glanced his header over the bar.