BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche said it has been the most challenging season of his career after guiding the Clarets to Premier League safety following a 2-0 win at Fulham on Monday night.

Victory at Craven Cottage secured a sixth successive year in the top flight for the Clarets – a place that came at the expense of Fulham who return to the Championship.

Dyche admitted it was an "awkward night" in West London considering what was at stake for Scott Parker’s side who needed to win to stand any chance of avoiding the drop.

The Clarets have hovered just above the drop zone for much of the season but after finally getting the points that confirmed their place in the Premier League, Dyche was delighted his side managed to rise to the challenge.

“A lot of work has been put on for this season, my most challenging as a manager without a doubt at the club,” he said. “So I’m very pleased with that and I’m very pleased with the players’ mentality because we’ve had a lot of challenges this year.”

Burnley sealed victory thanks to two first-half goals, Ashley Westwood sliding the ball home in the 35th minute before Chris Wood’s effort from distance doubled the lead just before the break.

Dyche praised his side’s solid performance as they sealed a 10th win of the season to move up to 14th place in the Premier League.

“I think it’s just a well-delivered performance on a very awkward night,” he added. “The measure of it is that we’ve delivered another solid performance, I don’t think it was our best but it was solid performance and we’ve scored two good goals.”

Despite securing the Premier League status, it was a subdued celebration at Craven Cottage from the Burnley players as they saw their hosts relegated.

Dyche admitted he had empathy for Parker who suffered his second relegation in three years.

“I don’t think any manager wants sympathy, I know a lot of managers now and most just want a bit of empathy and a bit of understanding,” Dyche said when asked if he had sympathy for Parker.

“It’s varying challenges and varying clubs.

“It’s very tough in the Premier League, I’ve been down that road myself, as you know.

“Our first season up we went back down and we had to come back up, it’s just tough. Of course empathy and understanding for it – I’ve been there – but there’s been a lot of good work at this football club and, beyond this, let’s see if they can go ahead again.

“There’s no glory by the way, teams that could go down, there’s no glory in that I can assure you, there’s empathy and understanding but your job is to look after yourselves and we’ve done that this season.”

Sean Dyche and Scott Parker at Craven Cottage

Sean Dyche and Scott Parker at Craven Cottage