DAVID Jones says struggling Burnley have not had the results he feels recent performances have deserved, and described defeat to West Ham United as “a tough one to take”.

The Clarets went into Saturday’s game at Upton Park knowing nothing less than a win would do in their late push for Premier League survival.

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But Michael Duff’s controversial 23rd-minute dismissal left them with an uphill task.

For the second time in three games, Burnley played more than a half with 10 men, following Ashley Barnes’ dismissal at Everton before the break, and for the fourth match in a row slipped to a 1-0 defeat, after Mark Noble scored the penalty conceded by Duff.

Burnley have only conceded two or more goals twice in the last 10 games and picked up four points from games against new Premier League champions Chelsea and last season’s league winners Manchester City in that time.

The Clarets earned credit for holding their own in a run of eight games against top eight teams, but consistently being on the wrong end of those fine margins has left them eight points adrift of safety with just three games to go.

“It can be frustrating. There’s only a certain point where you can keep saying we did well but got beat by the odd goal,” said Jones.

“We don’t want to be doing that; we want to be getting victories that our performances deserve. Obviously there’s just something not quite happening for us.”

Of Saturday’s defeat, their 19th of the season, Jones added: “It’s a tough one to take. We had a real chance to get something but it wasn’t to be.

“We feel there were a few unfortunate incidents, but we’re disappointed.”

The midfielder was particular baffled by Duff’s dismissal.

“It definitely didn’t look a sending off,” he added. “I didn’t know where that came from.

“But we just have to deal with it and move on.

“We can’t look towards that because we don’t make excuses.

“We can only deal with the things that we control on the pitch.

“You can’t affect the other stuff and we still had opportunities ourselves.”

Burnley will be relegated if they fail to beat Hull City when they make the trip to the KC Stadium next weekend.