Sean Dyche bemoaned a lack of quality after seeing Burnley slip to a fourth straight defeat despite having a man advantage for nearly the whole game against Leicester.
It appeared a golden chance for the Clarets to put distance between themselves and the bottom three when Harry Maguire was sent off in only the fourth minute at Turf Moor for bringing down Johann Berg Gudmundsson as the last man.
But Burnley could not make their advantage count and, although Dwight McNeil cancelled out James Maddison’s opener, Wes Morgan headed in a 90th-minute winner to make it 2-1.
Dyche said: “When a team goes down to 10 men so early it can feel strange unless you get a grip of the game straight away, and we didn’t.
“In the second half there was more of an 11 v 10 feel, in terms of possession and getting into the right areas, but we couldn’t find the real moments of quality, and that’s probably the question we’ve had all season, finding them in the attacking third.”
Burnley remain two points above the bottom three but have now played a game more than their rivals and, with matches against Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal to come in the closing weeks, the stakes are getting ever higher.
Dyche insisted there will be no sense of panic, though, saying: “Since Christmas we’ve had eight big results and now had four go against us. This is a tough one, but that’s the reality of the Premier League.
“But we have seven more games and they are all very important games for all different reasons. The only way we can look after ourselves is to play well enough.”
Brendan Rodgers can now boast two wins from three games since taking over as Leicester boss and he could not have been happier with the performance and attitude of his side.
He told LCFC TV: “Obviously to lose a man so early in the game can really affect the team, but the boys showed a wonderful resilience and mentality in the game.
“They had a decent control of the game without the ball. You don’t always have to have the ball to control the game. They got into good shape and they were hard to play through.
“We know we’ve got that pace on the counter-attack but, first and foremost, you have to defend well as a unit and they all did that. We’ve got a lot of young players that will have gained a lot of experience from that.”
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