BURNLEY defender Charlie Taylor knows that Saturday's trip to Crystal Palace is vital for the Clarets as they prepare for a tricky run of fixtures in the build up to Christmas.

Sean Dyche's side were beaten 2-1 at Turf Moor by Newcastle United on Monday night having conceded twice in the opening 15 minutes.

Federico Fernandez's shot deflected off Ben Mee to give the visitors the lead and Ciaran Clark was afforded too much space in the box to head home a second for Newcastle.

Sam Vokes halved the deficit before the break with a super header of his own but Burnley couldn't rescue a point.

The result means that the Clarets remain 17th in the table, one point and one place above the bottom three.

And with matches against Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham to come before Christmas, Taylor knows the importance of Saturday's trip to Selhurst Park against a Palace side who are ahead of Burnley only on goal difference.

"We need to get some results and get the momentum going," said the left back. "We've got a couple of tough fixtures coming up but we need to put it right starting on Saturday at Palace."

On the goals that Newcastle scored at Turf Moor on Monday night, Taylor added: "We weren't conceding those sort of goals last year but they can go either way.

"Ben's got a touch on (the first one) and that can block or go out for a corner but unlucky for us it's gone in the top corner, then they scored again from another set-piece, which is frustrating."

The Clarets spurned a couple of chances against Rafa Benitez's side but they could have lost by more, with Matt Ritchie missing an open goal and Joselu hitting a post.

Taylor added: "We're disappointed. It was a game we wanted to get three points from being at home and against a team that was near us. We conceded two sloppy goals really but the most frustrating thing is not getting any points.

"Obviously going one behind then two so early knocks the stuffing out of you really but we responded well initially with the goal from Vokesy but we just couldn't get the equaliser.

"We're going to have to pick ourselves up and learn from it. We set good foundations against Leicester to build on and unfortunately we didn't do that."

Burnley's injury problems are easing, meanwhile, with Ben Gibson in the squad for the first time since August and key defender James Tarkowski potentially in contention for the clash with Palace following hernia surgery.

Winger Johann Berg Gudmundsson missed the Newcastle game with a sickness bug having recovered from a calf problem.