BURNLEY boss Owen Coyle said he was proud of the way his players reacted in adversity.

The Clarets manager was not convinced that John Spicer deserved to be given a straight red card for his two-footed tackle on Jonathan Walters on the stroke of half-time.

But Coyle was delighted with the manner in which Burnley responded to their one-man deficit, to earn a clean sheet and point from a side who boast the best home record in the Championship.

"It's a fantastic point and I've got nothing but immense pride with the way the players conducted themselves in the second half," said the Scot.

"We were playing a very good side with, I felt, some very talented individual players, and they're always going to put you on the back foot 11 v 11, nevermind 11 v 10. Having said that, I thought we coped admirably and relatively comfortably with what we had to do in the second half.

"I felt they had probably better goalscoring opp-ortunities in the first half, and that's all credit to us.

"I thought we had a resilience today that we weren't going to give anything up, and I've got nothing but praise for them.

"Having to come and get a point under normal circumstances I think would have been a very good point given Ipswich's home record.

"But to go and achieve it going down to 10 men in the first half I think is a magnificent point for us."

And Coyle said that although he was disappointed to pick up another suspension, after Chris McCann and Joey Gudjonsson were sent off against Preston last weekend, he accepted referee Phil Dowd's decision.

"Initially, at the time, I thought he'd won the ball, but the referee was certainly in a better position than I was," Coyle explained.

"If he's deemed it to be a red card then as much as we're angry and you want to dispute everything, as you do because you feel you've got a duty to protect your team, he was convinced it was a red card, so I have to go with that.

"If it was a red card maybe it's because he was over-zealous and desperate to stay in (the team), because I think what we have shown is that if players are doing well for us then I'll be loyal to them and they'll stay in the team.

"Whoever comes in, it's an opportunity for them to make sure they stay in.

"I'm not pleased about it (Spicer's dismissal), because we finished with nine men last week and 10 today.

"Without going over old ground regarding last week's sending off, then it's important we don't lose players because with the level of the Championship - it's difficult enough 11 v 11 without going down to 10 men, and particularly today against a very talented side."