SEAN Dyche insists he will continue to build Burnley ‘one piece at a time’ after playing down rising expectations around Turf Moor.

The Clarets moved a step closer to securing Premier League survival by claiming a second away point of the season with a 1-1 draw at Hull City on Saturday.

That moved them up to 11th in the table with 12 games to go and to within two points of ninth placed West Ham, but asked if he felt the Clarets were now a mid-table team Dyche refused to look too far ahead.

“We’ve stuck to a mantra ever since I’ve been at the club. To build something, you can only do it one piece at a time,” he said.

“Seasons get built one game at a time. It’s something we’ve focused on for a long time now.

“We move forward, we park it, as we did with last week’s game (the FA Cup defeat to Lincoln).

“You saw on Saturday a clarity in the performance.”

Burnley maintained a healthy gap to the bottom three by rescuing a point at the KCOM Stadium thanks to Michael Keane’s equaliser.

But Dyche said his own expectations were not rising.

“Mine stay steadfast to what I believe is correct for the group,” he said. “Everyone else can have their version.

“My group know what I think and how I operate and that’s the key thing for me.”

The trip to Humberside was another example of Burnley’s improving away form.

Although it was only a second point of the campaign on the road, the performances have improved considerably since the early months of the campaign.

“In the early part of the season, we didn’t play well enough. We didn’t deserve any results,” said Dyche.

“But four or five games ago, there was a massive shift in performance levels. We’ve gone to some tough places – Tottenham, Arsenal – how we didn’t get a point at Arsenal is beyond belief.

“Lately, I’ve not been disappointed with many of the performances.

“On Saturday, I thought we got the reward for what was at least a solid performance. We can still improve.

“Some of the detail in the top third was lacking but the general desire of the team, the shape and the energy and the mental fight that you need – I thought that was on show. We deserved at least a point.”

Dyche will have to do without Ashley Barnes for the trip to Swansea on Saturday after he was sent off for picking up two yellow cards at Hull, the first for contesting the penalty decision that went against the Clarets.

“Barnesy’s second booking is a booking, but the first one the behaviour of our players is immaculate,” said Dyche. “I don’t know how aggressive he was, but it didn’t look aggressive to me.

“And he’s said no expletives, just pointed to say their lad has pushed Keano into it. I think that’s harsh to get a booking for that.”

Johann Berg Gudmundsson is also a likely absentee at the Liberty Stadium, while Dyche describes Steven Defour as having an ‘outside chance’.

“Not Johann, maybe, but I doubt it,” he said. “Steven has an outside chance, we’ll see how he does this week. He’s back out on the grass and active.”