CLARETS boss Owen Coyle lavished praise on his players after their derby day victory over Preston.

Burnley bounced back from Barry Nicholson’s opener thanks to goals from Joey Gudjonsson, Steven Caldwell and Chris Eagles to make it eight games unbeaten and lift them up to eight in the Championship table.

And Coyle felt his side were good value for their three points.

He said: “It thought we deserved it from start to finish. When I look back we dominated the game. We could have opened the scoring as early as the first minute but we knew Preston would always be dangerous on the counter attack and so it proved with the goal they scored.

“At that point, it would have been very easy for us to feel sorry for ourselves because up to that point we’d dominated the game and had a few opportunities to get in front but it was great finish by Barry Nicholson.

“But the lads showed the hunger and the desire to go and win the derby and I think Joey’s goal was very special.

“I felt we should have probably been in front at the break but we weren't but I asked the lads to give us the same again, which I knew would be a tall order because of the cup-tie in midweek.

“But they carried it on and scored a very good second goal.

“There might have been a tendency to sit back at that point to protect what we had.

“But we were urging them on from the side to try and get the next one and put the game to bed. And that's what we did.”

And on Gudjonsson’s wonder-strike, Coyle revealed he and his coaching staff have encouraged the Icelander to try his luck from distance.

He added: “He is capable of that and we encourage him to do to go and hit them when he’s in that area. When he does catch them right, then they're unstoppable.”