Burnley 1, Reading 2

In the opening minutes, with Keane unable to clear the danger, Blackman (5) finished from a fine Robson-Kanu back-heel to set him up to make it one-nil with it soon two with Chelsea loanee Piazon (9) finishing off a Reading counter attack from a Gunter cross.

But then after the interval Royals had to stand up and be counted as Burnley threw everything at them as they searched for a way back into the game.

Darikwa (67) was left with a simple tap in for his first goal since his arrival from Chesterfield in the summer, which has seen him impress so far, after Arfield crossed in to give Burnley hope at the midway point of the second half.

“We kept them to mainly long distance, apart from one at the end when they had a bit of a scramble”, said Dyche, who felt the Clarets should have had a penalty when Michael Hector appeared to block Sam Vokes’ shot with his raised arms.

“The idea is always to be competitive in the division and I think after quite a slow start, not performance-wise but results-wise, we’re starting to pick up wins now so that’s four wins out of the last five games”, he said. Next week against Middlesbrough we’re taking on a team that everybody is saying will be up there in the mix at the end of the season.

Burnley suffered their first home defeat after being stunned by two early goals at Turf Moor. “I knew what I was bringing to the club”. “Sometimes a game like this feels a bit better than a normal victory because you know you’ve had to work hard to get the points”.

The Northern Ireland worldwide comes to Turf Moor with Reading, with the Royals looking to join Sean Dyche’s side among the Championship frontrunners.

And it added to the growing confidence around Madejski Stadium that they can mount a serious assault on promotion this season.

“At Bristol City we had a similar scenario but we were much more comfortable in the game, whereas this afternoon was against a team that were in the Premier League previous year who were asking a lot of questions of us”.

“So to go there, start the way we did and show a lot of quality was great”.