BURNLEY boss Eddie Howe has urged the Clarets to use their fightback at Hull City as a turning point in their season.
The Clarets arrested a run of four straight defeats and jumped five places to 16th after a David Edgar double and Jay Rodriguez’s 10th goal of the season secured a dramatic stoppage time win at the KC Stadium.
Burnley had trailed 2-0 until the 77th minute, when Edgar’s first goal for the club set the scene for a late comeback.
But Howe warned them not to let their hard work go to waste when they take on Ipswich Town at Turf Moor tomorrow night.
“We need to follow it up with a performance (tonight) and hopefully the result will follow,” said Howe.
“It’s a massive game for us.
Back to back wins would transform the feeling around the club.
“I think the players' belief has been knocked the last four games, where we haven't actually performed too badly.
“The Leeds game we should have won, the Birmingham game we should have got a really good point. That's four points and huge confidence from those games. As it is we performed okay but we didn't get anything. Then it's difficult for the players to maintain that belief in their ability.
“But the lads got a huge confidence boost when David Edgar scored his first goal and started to believe in themselves again and from then on in we played some great stuff and looked like we were going to score every time we attacked.
“The first goal was the key point. It was a great header by David and he scored two good goals.
“It's confidence with this group of players because we are so young and those players don't have a lot of experience to fall back on.
“When they believe in themselves like they did when they got that lift you saw a different team and you saw what they're capable of.
“We do have the players, it's just trying to get that performance that we saw at the end as the regular Burnley.”
Matty Fryatt scored in either half to give Hull a 2-0 lead on 55 minutes, and Howe admitted he got his initial team selection wrong.
“It's a difficult one because we wanted to try and be a bit more solid and bit harder to beat with our defensive record in mind to try and shore us up a little bit.
"I don't think it worked particularly well and I've got to look at myself for that because I don't think the team selection was particularly good, and we had to change it,” said the Burnley boss, who introduced introduced Sam Vokes for Junior Stanislas at half-time.
And the targetman was instrumental in their recovery.
“He's a physical presence. You just have to see with David Edgar's second goal, a little knockdown in the box from Sam's flick. I thought he did really well in the second half,” said Howe, who praised his players' determination.
“I have to praise my players on is their resilience and the way they stuck together,” said Howe.
“They are a good group and their attitude has been fantastic. They're showing great character again. We conceded an early goal but we didn't buckle, we didn't go under. We did the opposite.
“They are huge positives for us going forward because if we can build that team spirit, and I think the celebrations at the end reflected that, then we do have a really good chance with the quality we have within the squad of turning it around.”
The win came at a price, though, as Ross Wallace picked up his fifth booking of the season and will miss tomorrow night's game at home to Ipswich Town.
“That's a big blow for us because Ross was a player who really came into his own again late on on Saturday,” said Howe.
“I think he's done really well this season. He's a real goal threat and he's added assists to his game as well.
“It's a big blow to lose him but it will give someone else an opportunity and hopefully they'll take it.”
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