SEAN Dyche has urged Ashley Barnes to keep playing his natural game following the fallout to the incident with Nemanja Matic at Chelsea.

Barnes has been in the spotlight this week following his clash with the Serbian midfielder at Stamford Bridge, and Dyche admits it has been a learning curve for his 25-year-old striker.

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The tackle on Matic was labelled ‘criminal’ by Blues boss Jose Mourinho, but Dyche wants Barnes to continue with the combatative game that has served him so well in the Premier League this season.

Having avoided an FA charge over the incident, Barnes is set to return to action for the visit of Swansea tomorrow.

"He'll be ready to play if he's selected, I'm sure of that,” Dyche said.

“How he'll deal with it is all part of his learning curve. It's not a good one but it happens.

“He's a hard-working professional player who has worked blooming hard to get to where he's got to.

“I think his motivation will be to keep doing what he's doing, keep playing hard for the team and score some goals.

"I hope he's not over-thinking it. I will be encouraging him to stay clear-minded and get on with the football. It's all out of his hands, he can't do anything about it.

“He’s a steady lad. He’s been doing tremendously for us and the lads are around that situation, as are the staff, so it’s onwards and upwards for him.

“I hope he just plays with the freedom he has been playing.”

Barnes team-mates have backed him this week, and Dyche said the team spirit at Gawthorpe had helped to make sure that Barnes had not felt alone during a difficult week.

“We're a tight knit group, a tight knit club,” he said. “It's only natural if one of your own has something happen to them.

“There's a saying that if someone from Burnley gets kicked, they all limp. We've got a tight group so its a natural thing for them to be round him anyway. They are all in it together - as we all are."

Dyche revealed he had not spoken to Mourinho since the incident, and didn’t speak to him after the game at Stamford Bridge.

"I didn't see him after the game,” he said. “Not for any reason other than there was a lot going on. I don't know him well enough to know if he was trying to avoid me.

“I've only met him in passing in the past.

“I think he (Jose) is a fantastic manager with fantastic players and a fantastic club. That’s what I said straight after the game. These are just flashpoints that can happen in football.”

Despite last week’s controversy Burnley remain second in the fair play league, and Dyche hopes that the fallout from Stamford Bridge doesn’t affect the reputation of his side.

“I’d imagine not,” he said. “I would hope not. I think we are joint top or top of the fair play league.

“I think one of the categories is respect to the opposition, I think we’re top of that, and I think one of the others is respect to the referees and I think we are around the top of that so I don’t see why anyone should over-think what we’re about as a group and a club and myself and my team.”