BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche has revealed he encountered a change of plan for Tuesday night’s friendly at Rangers, and praised his players for the way they coped.

The Clarets boss had not anticipated fielding anyone for longer than 60 minutes, but with minor injuries limiting him to only one fit senior striker it meant Lukas Jutkiewicz played the full game.

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Scott Arfield, who scored the winning goal at Ibrox, also completed the 90 minutes along with goalkeeper Matt Gilks, while Tom Heaton nursed a finger injury.

And while Dyche said it was not an ideal scenario at this stage of pre-season, he was pleased with the players’ response.

“We ended up playing more minutes than we thought with some of the players because unfortunately we’ve only got one centre forward fit,” said the Turf Moor chief, who is without long-term casualty Ashley Barnes.

Marvin Sordell suffered injury in Saturday’s defeat to Accrington Stanley, while Sam Vokes picked up a knock ahead of the Rangers clash which ruled him out.

“It’s nothing too drastic, I must make clear. They’re on their way back, they’re just niggles, but we have to be careful at this stage, it’s still quite early and there are a lot of games coming up,” added Dyche.

“We had to change the feel of it and Juke worked ever so hard. He’s got 90 under his belt, which is good in a way but we weren’t planning on that.

“We were probably looking ideally for either 60 or 30 and then the opposite players tomorrow would play 60 and 30 in the behind-closed-doors game. That hasn’t happened as easily as we would have wished but it’s still a great experience, good to get the minutes in their legs.”

Dyche was also satisfied with the 1-0 win, as Rangers rounded off their pre-season programme.

“They had the upper hand in the first 25 minutes but I thought our will and the demand and the organisation was fantastic.

“We didn’t keep the ball but sometimes that happens, particularly in the Championship.

“I spoke to the group at half-time and they gave a good response in the second half. The game flat-lined a little bit but I thought we looked strong again.”