Nicky Hayen confident he can drag Burnley out of ‘really difficult situation’

The Turf Moor crowd vented their anger – most vehemently towards owner Alan Pace – after Aaron Ramsey’s 56th-minute opener for the Clarets was overturned by an 82nd-minute header from Rob Dickie and a brilliant stoppage-time strike from City substitute Yu Hirakawa.

Hayen has collected just two points from his five league games since being appointed in July after Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League, but the embattled Belgian remains adamant he can turn things round.

“I completely understand the fans, they’re frustrated and disappointed,” said Hayen. “Of course, it’s not nice to experience this, but I understand and I can accept it. The only thing we can do is keep on fighting back and showing resilience.

“There’s a lack of confidence at the moment and also a lack of fitness. We have players who didn’t play a lot in 18 months, in 15 months, and they still need a few weeks to get to their top level,

“I would rather my team was ready today than tomorrow, but with all the signings that we did and even the players who were already here who didn’t play for a long time, it takes time.

“I’m the last one who is actually asking for time, because I know how it goes in football and with results.

“I didn’t expect this start and for me it’s frustrating because I can’t give the fans what they deserve.

“But I’m not giving up. I have been in even more difficult situations and I turned it around and I’m 100 per cent sure when everyone sticks together that we can do it also.

“It takes until the international break when everyone will be 100 per cent ready in fitness and then we will be a really strong team, but you have to survive until then and at the moment we’re in a really difficult situation.”

“It’s something towards the fans, but also towards the players, we cannot stay in this negativity, because if we stay negative, you never ever come out of this situation.”

Robins boss Michael Skubala felt his side were well worthy of their victory.

“For me, it wasn’t a smash and grab or anything like that,” he said. “I think we deserved to win it and it was great when we got it over the line.

“First half they didn’t cause us too many problems. And after they scored we looked really good and the team that was in the ascendancy.

“When we got our goal, I thought we were the ones that could go on and win it and we did that.”

City are fourth in the table after winning their last three league games.

“It’s early days, but it’s really encouraging to see the team fight and play some good attacking football,” said Skubala.

“It shows we’ve got a strong group that can win matches at this level.”