ANYONE needing to know what a difference a year makes in football need look no further than Turf Moor.

As Sean Dyche reflects on 12 months in charge clear change has been afoot.

There has been an obvious shift in position. Burnley were in 14th place when the former Chesterfield defender was officially unveiled as the 30th boss in the Clarets’ history.

The picture got a little more precarious as the season went on, with congestion from the top half to the bottom three.

But a line has been drawn through those troubles with the influx of new personnel and they go into their 14th league game of the season, at Millwall on Saturday, top of the table.

Tom Heaton, Scott Arfield, David Jones all came without cost, in terms of transfer fees, but with a wealth of hunger and desire to do well for themselves and the team. That attitude – orchestrated by Dyche – helped to galvanise the group.

But the biggest factor has been a change in perception, both inside and outside of the camp.

It is fair to say that Dyche was not the overwhelmingly popular choice among supporters when the search for Eddie Howe’s successor reached its conclusion in late October 2012 – something he has been quick to acknowledge since scooping the manager of the month prize.

“The people calling me ‘Ginger Mourinho’ this season weren’t calling me that last year,” he has said on at least one occasion in the last few weeks.

But it is also fair to say there wasn’t one stand-out manager of choice among fans either.

Which is why the board’s decision to appoint Dyche – and sticking by him after the sticky spells of last season – is looking better by the game this term.

Despite being impressed by the former defender’s demeanour in the handful of press conferences I witnessed in his season as Watford boss, I must confess I wasn’t sure how his Vicarage Road style of play – perceived as direct – would fit with the team that Howe had assembled.

How wrong I was.

Dyche has taken the best assets of that team and enhanced them, and improved their weaknesses to find the perfect blend of graft and guile.

He has brought belief, both on and off the pitch, breathed life back into Turf Moor and brought national newspaper journalists not seen since the Premier League season back out of the woodwork, handling it all with humility while maintaining the hunger for more. And I have the recipe for humble pie.