SEAN Dyche admitted he could only 'marvel' at full-back Matt Lowton as he returned to Premier League action with a bang on Saturday.

The former Aston Villa man lost his place at right-back to Phil Bardsley when the more experienced campaigner impressed in Lowton's absence through injury in early December.

Lowton picked up an injury against Arsenal on November 26 and although he returned to the bench at Brighton on December 16 he found the form of Bardsley blocking his path back to the first team.

Since then Lowton's only action has been in the FA Cup defeat to Manchester City at the start of January but a hamstring injury picked up by Bardsley during the first-half of Saturday's draw with the same opposition handed the 28-year-old a chance to stake a claim to get his place back.

It was one he grasped with both hands, making an impact down the right and linking well with Aaron Lennon before swinging in the cross which Johann Berg Gudmundsson converted to equalise with eight minutes to go.

It's the second time Lowton has found his place taken by someone else since arriving at Turf Moor in the summer of 2015. Not long after signing he picked up an injury which allowed Tendayi Darikwa the first opportunity to impress at right-back, leaving Lowton on the sidelines until mid-December.

Since then he has started 74 of the last 76 league games for the Clarets before injury allowed former Manchester United man Bardsley to take his place.

But his hamstring injury could now see Lowton back in the starting line-up, and Dyche said: "I have to give Lowts a mention.

"I marvel at these players and I speak to them about it all the time, when you are out of the side do everything you can to stay on it, we’ll provide the physical platform and it paid him back (on Saturday) because he was so excellent when he came on, it was excellent to see him come on and play like that."

Dyche is delighted to see that attitude remain strong in his squad, with players continuing to take their chance as the injury list grows.

On the opposite flank Charlie Taylor has impressed in the absence of Stephen Ward, while Kevin Long has done little wrong when called upon this season in the absence of either Ben Mee or, currently, James Tarkowski.

It's a similar story in goal with Nick Pope and on Saturday Sam Vokes made only his second Premier League start since September 10, but proved a handful for City's backline.

"That mentality has been firm here, Vokesy has gone hard again, he hasn’t played much football of late but he ran hard," Dyche said.

"As a starting point as a manager if you get a group of people to give you everything I’ll take that, the rest of it, skill, tactics, a lot of that is down to me, but the mentality of the players is fantastic and that was on show again."