OWEN Coyle admitted he was still finding his first defeat as Burnley manager hard to swallow going into his inaugural Lancashire derby on Saturday.

A second consecutive defeat left an extra bitter taste, particularly as the 3-2 home defeat against Preston North End came at an even greater price in terms of his squad.

Chris McCann and Joey Gudjonsson are both facing three match bans following their second-half dismissals, while question marks will remain over the fitness of Alan Mahon and Kyle Lafferty, who were both substituted after the first half. All four of those players were involved in midfield.

But Coyle is refusing to press the panic button just yet.

"Every kind of problem that could go against us did go against us," he said. "We'd injuries to cope with in Alan Mahon and Kyle Lafferty, but I think everybody showed their determination and their passionate desire.

"It's disappointing to finish the game with nine men and no points but it's a learning curve, and we will learn from it and we'll make sure we're better.

"There are certainly suspensions there, and we'll look at that in due course, but that's the nature of football, you get injuries and suspensions; we've had a lot of them in the last week. We'll take stock and we'll be ready to go next week."

On a positive note, Coyle was pleased with the contributions of Lafferty and McCann in getting both of the Clarets' goals.

"There were two great goals for two young kids that I think are going to have big careers ahead of them," he said.

But the Burnley manager was disappointed with the manner in which Preston were allowed to clinch the derby - their first away win since April - and climb off the bottom of the Championship.

"We'll dust ourselves down, take our positives and we'll look to work on not conceding, I think, soft goals from our point of view.

"It's very disappointing to hav e lost that game, but we'll take our medicine and we'll come back stronger for it."

Although the Clarets have recorded wins at Leicester, Watford, Charlton and Wolves in their last four away games, defeat at home to Preston extended their miserly home run to two wins in 10 league games.

But Coyle is keen for that not to become an issue.

"That's the nature of football, people see an unbelievable away record and two draws and two defeats at home, but you look at each individual performance and we certainly merited a lot more than the two draws with that," he said.