BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche insists he never lost faith in Matej Vydra making his mark at Turf Moor.

The Czech forward went around 15 months without a Premier League start for the Clarets.

But Dyche feels it is a measure of Vydra's professionalism that he has made the impact he has.

Injury to top scorer Chris Wood has opened the door to the first team.

And Dyche admits that, with a goal in each of his last two games - including the winner from the bench at Southampton, he is going the right way to shutting positional rivals out.

"I think he has come into a side that is in good shape anyway but he has certainly been effective in that side," said the Burnley boss.

"He is an experienced player, the good side about moving around a lot of clubs is that he has had lots of different experiences, playing styles and teams and players to work with. He is flexible in that sense.

"Now it is laying down what it is to be a player here and the consistency within that. I think the main thing is to be open minded and I think he has shown that. Just take on the game and don't overthink everything around it, get on with playing and enjoy the buzz that comes with that.

"He has been cracking away and training properly and waiting for his chance.

"By his own admission, (there have been occasions) when we have got him on recently and he hasn't done well and he knows that."

But Dyche insists he always believed they would see the best of Vydra.

"At Southampton I could have shifted other people elsewhere because Matej hadn't shown it the previous times we had got him on," he explained.

"But I still had the faith in the players to play well and do the right thing and that faith was rewarded really because he went on and delivered a very good performance.

"I spoke with the staff on the sidelines but we didn't really have a major hesitation about getting him against Southampton and he played well and scored and then there was no hesitation in playing him in the next game against Bournemouh.

"We believe in all the players here, sometimes it doesn't look like it because they are out of the picture but it doesn't mean we don't believe in them. We are just waiting for the right time to play them or the time that gives them the right chance to play well and not just our chance of playing well."