ADRIAN Heath (pictured) was delighted by Burnley's battling display at the County Ground last night, when they held Second Division title favourites Swindon Town to a goalless draw.
Looking long-term, rather than short, the Turf Moor boss revealed that he would even have been prepared to accept defeat last night, so long as his team played to those standards every week.
The commitment and overall performance was, he said, the yardstick they had now set themselves.
Heath's is determined that such displays must become the norm, rather than the exception.
"The most important thing for me last night was the way that we played," said the Burnley boss.
"I have commented at times about the level of commitment and the good thing from my point of view was that one or two players showed their hand last night.
"But now we have to do it against every team, not just the likes of Swindon who are at the top of the league.
"You get three points for beating the likes of Carlisle and Brighton, just the same as you do for beating teams like Swindon.
"We have to treat every game the same.
"I have said before you can accept mistakes and you know there are times you are going to be beaten.
"But every manager should be able to send a team out knowing that they are going to give everything, in every game.
"I won't accept anything less and we set a standard for ourselves last night that must be maintained."
Burnley will be forced to make one change when they visit Notts Colunty on Saturday, as Gerry Harrison starts a three-match suspension.
Derek Adams was sent off as Burnley Reserves crashed 3-1 at Sunderland last night.
Early in the game, Adams had the joy of putting Burnley's second string into a 14th minute lead with a bullet header from Richard Livingstone's pinpoint cross.
But a dour game, highlighted by some cracking goals, began to turn sour for Burnley.
Sunderland equalised through a great goal by Michael Bridges and, on the stroke of half time, Adams was booked.
With less than 15 minutes to go, Chris Lawless hammered Sunderland in front and, shortly afterwards, Adams was shown a second yellow card and sent off. Stephen Brodie wrapped up the home team's win with a late third.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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