SEAN Dyche felt Burnley gave a 'very good account of themselves' despite suffering a defeat to Manchester United at Turf Moor.

The Clarets were the better side for most of the afternoon but failed to make their pressure pay before Anthony Martial's winner early in the second half.

Dyche felt his side were undone by a moment of quality, with Martial crashing a shot in off the underside of the bar, and said he had no reason to be disappointed with his players.

"I thought the performance was very good," the Clarets chief said.

"You’re playing against one of the top sides in the division, and I thought we, at least, matched them, and at times went beyond them.

"The defining moment is a fantastic piece of quality, it has to be said, he sees the gap and whips it in the corner.

"That’s a great moment of quality, but other than that, we gave a very good account of ourselves.

"I’ve said recently, you can have a tough run in the Premier League, that we’ve had, and lots of different margins can decide a game, decisions, we’ve had a few injuries, etc etc, but when you perform like that, that’s the key to it, continuing to perform like that.

"We haven’t had too many dips, but that’s a very good performance and I’m very pleased with the players."

Defeat to United made it seven without a win in the Premier League for the Clarets and they have fallen to eighth as a result of Leicester City's win over Watford.

But Dyche said measuring Burnley's recent run simply by results didn't tell the whole story.

"The challenge of the Premier League, that’s why the top six are the top six, often they can just about hang in there and find a moment of quality, and they do it enough," he said.

"If you look at the stats, you will clearly see a gap between the top six, where almost none have had an awkward run, but every single club outside the top six have had a tough run at some stage, and that clearly defines the league.

"So when we perform like that against some of the super powers, I’m very pleased with how far we’ve come, and we continue to move forward.

"Results are hard to come by, but you can’t always measure everything by results, as a manager.

"As a fan you do, but you have to look beyond a result sometimes, and over this run I’ve been pretty pleased with a lot of performances, including that one."

Dyche admitted to 'frustration' at Mike Dean's performance as he failed to book Paul Pogba for a clear pull of Jack Cork's shirt, before then brandishing a yellow at the Frenchman soon after that perhaps should have been a second booking.

"I think the margins are tight with decisions, they were some moments which are strange to understand," Dyche said.

"At the beginning of the season we get told the rules, Jack Cork gets past Pogba, you can clearly see he’s tried to pull his shirt, he doesn’t get him, he then tries to bring him down, he doesn’t get him, then he stands up and boots the ball away and gets nothing.

"Then later on he gets booked, and could be sent off. I don’t want to see players sent off, because I think some of the rules are crazy now, just get on with the game.

"But over 90 minutes, if you’re not getting the right side of some of those, and there were a lot of soft things today that went against us, and it all adds up. It’s frustrating."