Andros Townsend spoke of his side’s aspirations of a top-half finish, making tonight’s loss at Burnley all the more disappointing. The forward credited Burnley’s defensive resilience, but was critical of the visitor’s start to the game and lack of clinical finishing.
He said: “Burnley are similar to us us – when they go 1-0 up, they’re very difficult to break down. They are well set up, well drilled in a 4-4-2, and everyone knows their job. If you don’t score the first goal, it’s going to be a very long night as they defend so well.
“On occasions we’ve come here, made chances and been clinical, but tonight we created chances but we weren’t clinical. Towards the end, we were throwing everything at them, putting balls in the box, creating carnage. Ultimately on this day, we couldn’t get that all important goal, on another day – we could have had one, two or three.
“It’s very frustrating; we know in the dressing room if we have aspirations of finishing in the top 10, ultimately these are games you have to be winning. Yes, Burnley are a good side, they are very tough to beat, especially at home, but if you want to have a good season and break into the monopoly of the top 10 you have to win these games.”
Turning attention to Friday night’s clash with Newcastle United, Townsend said: “We have to dust ourselves down, we’ve got another big game on Friday night. We can’t dwell on this one too long, we have to move on.
“We know Newcastle be extremely difficult again – most of their points they’ve picked up have been away from home. We know we can’t have 45-50 minutes to get going if we want to pick up any points on Friday as well."
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