Burnley stumbled to their third straight defeat with two goals down from Ivan Toney condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at Brentford, ending a four-match unbeaten run in the capital for the Clarets.

It took 85 minutes for the deadlock to be broken and Burnley had been right in the game up to that point – Jay Rodriguez closed with a vicious effort from range that slammed the crossbar – but Toney followed his opening header with a goal from the penalty spot after being brought down by Nathan Collins in the penalty area, a challenge for which the centre-back was later ruled out.

Manager Sean Dyche addressed the media after the game – these were his most notable quotes.

By losing it late

The visitors approached so close to a point at the Brentford Community Stadium what they probably would have taken, in fairness and despite their current situation, – throwing it all in the final moments of the encounter was hugely disappointing, but the manager claimed earlier debauchery was to blame as much as the defensive mistakes that lead for both purposes.

“It’s the reality of premier league“, said Dyche. “I have to say he’s a great center but we should have managed him better. There’s a lot of frustration because when you can’t find the win you don’t lose. We kept them to a minimum for a team. at home and we had chances with Maxwel [Cornet] and [Dwight] McNeil, but we didn’t take advantage of those moments and we were punished.”

On penalty and expulsion

Deep in stoppage time, Burnley were hit with a arguably double whammy when Collins was sent off for his elbow on Toney in the box, and Dyche was a bit perplexed by both that and the referee’s decision to award a penalty first Paul Tierney.

“I thought it was a soft penalty. I don’t really understand why you get a red card for that – apparently it’s for an elbow to the upper body, but it didn’t make much sense for me.”

On the misfortunes of scorers

It was a tight game, but it was not one without its fair share of chances and a handful of them had fallen Burnley’s way. They had several good positions but, in hindsight, perhaps failed to test the Bees keeper David Raya as much as they should have done. Dyche hit it off with his forwards after an afternoon in which they weren’t hit by the green.

“I told the players afterwards that it’s the most difficult thing in football to score a goal, and that’s why strikers earn the most money, but we also need freedom and creativity in good times. Wout looked tired today, he put in so much effort – we created chances but it’s not easy to play like Man City.”

By remaining weighted

The score tells the story of a fairly comfortable win for Brentford, but it was far from it. Burnley were right in this contest until the very end and Dyche insisted there was nothing about the performance that worried him despite the late collapse.

“Over the course of the season, margins have been tight in many of our games,” he claimed. “A moment can change a performance; you can look at any defeat and immediately decide it’s a bad performance but it’s my job not to do that. It’s very tricky to judge a performance accurately but I wasn’t too disappointed.”

During the break-in

The silver lining for Burnley is that they still have 33 points to go. When asked if each of the last 11 games of the season was actually a cup final, Dyche answered very well.

“If I say we have 11 cup finals left, well, you know how hard it is to win one!”

Unsurprisingly, the manager is keeping the faith despite another setback in west London. Burnley have been in this position before, but it will now take a monumental effort to secure their premier league status for a seventh consecutive season.