SEAN Dyche could not fault his Burnley side's performance despite their 3-1 defeat at Everton.

Saturday's result meant the Clarets are still looking for their first away win of the season but Dyche insists they played well at Goodison Park.

The Burnley boss said: "It is a tough one to call. You don't want to cry about it but I thought the performance was good.

"If you were a neutral and didn't know we hadn't won away from home, you wouldn't believe it.

"They are on a very hot run at home but I thought first half we were excellent. We had one cleared off the line, two one v ones and their keeper has made a big save.

"Second half I didn't think there was that much in the game but the second one (Everton goal) has to be bad luck.

"To have a shot hit your centre-half and it is going wide and then it hits your other centre-half, that has got to be hard luck.

"They have three minutes where they turn up the heat and one of the top strikers in the game at the moment (Romelu Lukaku) scores a goal. That is the Premier League."

Ross Barkley's shot ended up in the net off Clarets defender Ben Mee to make it 2-1, with Lukaku's 24th Premier League goal of the campaign ending the contest.

Phil Jagielka's second-half opener had been quickly cancelled out by Sam Vokes' penalty but the Toffees regained control as they climbed to fifth in the table.

Barkley had an eventful game, also twice heading off the line, as he appeared to show no ill effects from becoming inadvertently embroiled in the row about derogatory comments about him written in a national newspaper column.

Everton manager Ronald Koeman insists he had no doubts about picking Barkley after the midfielder's week in the headlines.

Koeman said: "I think it is the best way to play football, to forget what happened last week. Of course I can understand (his celebration) because what happened had a really big impact for him."