SEAN Dyche believes there were signs of Burnley returning to their old selves despite slipping to a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United on Monday night.

The result means the Clarets travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday just one point and one place above the bottom three in the Premier League.

Indeed Burnley could find themselves in the relegation zone before kick off if Cardiff beat Brighton on Friday night.

But boss Dyche was taking the positives from the home reverse to the Magpies, although he admitted it is results, not performances, that ultimately count.

“There’s a lot more signs of it (returning to our levels), the stats will stat up well, we don’t use that as a literal marker, but that has to go into the thinking, our eyes tell us there were lots of good things but inevitably you have to win games and we know that," he said.

“We’ve got to turn good performances into wins, or certainly points, but I think that’s another sign of that mentality coming back.

“There was a lot of character, a lot of belief to go and get a result and that is going to be important going forward."

Burnley were two down inside the opening 15 minutes against Newcastle.

The first came when Federico Fernandez's shot deflected off Ben Mee and into the net while the second saw Ciaran Clark afforded too much space to head in a Matt Ritchie delivery.

“The first goal is a lucky break," said Dyche. "Ben gets a block, because we’re renowned for blocking, so you can’t do a lot with that.

“The second is something where we were attacking everything last season but I think that comes with a bit of nerves as well, a bit of an edge, you’re 1-0 down and you think you could do with a goal and they get one.

“But the mentality was firm after that, although you want that throughout not just when they’ve scored.

“We're frustrated with the result but there were better signs again and we know we have to turn that into results."