Clarets' control was impressive - Dyche

Burnley extended their advantage at the top of the Championship to seven points ahead of Middlesbrough's trip to Charlton on Sunday, as first half goals from Stephen Ward, Sam Vokes and Ben Mee proved enough to see off the Terriers.

Dyche's side showed no signs of fatigue after a long trip to Fulham in midweek, and he said: "It was a very good afternoon, I thought we handled the game very well, we were very strong in the first half, hence the scoreline, a fantastic reaction to them getting a soft goal, going and scoring a third.

"It was a great reaction, we'd given away a sloppy goal, and you could see the reaction, the lads were annoyed with that. Jonah's set piece delivery was excellent, and it was a great reaction - we've done that many times this season, we don't get too disappointed."

He added: "Second half I was delighted with the way we controlled the feel of the game, because that's important, you're 3-1 up, they play with more freedom, they have nothing to lose, but we controlled that well, kept them to minimal chances, got blocks on when we needed to, and with a scratch of extra quality in the second half, could have gone on the counter a number of times and finished the job off, which we did anyway.

"It was a really strong performance, particularly first half, you expect them to have a reaction, they've got that freedom at 3-1 down, they have nothing to lose, they came at us a bit stronger, but I thought we handled it very well and managed the game well."

Burnley keep churning out results and performances, despite using the least number of players in the Championship: "The responsibility myself and the staff have is to allow the players to be in the best physical condition to do what we do, and you could see, we upset their gameplan, and delivered a very good performance.

"Tactically I was very pleased.

"The energy of the side is undoubted. We've been strong going down every season since I've been at the club.

"We'll be strong again. We are showing signs that we are strong, we will physically go as hard as we need to go.

"The main thing for me was the control in the second half, particularly, because we never really looked in trouble, we could have hurt them on the counter, as the game wore on we kept the ball better and better on a very tricky surface, and they are all good signs of what we are about.

"It was certainly a very powerful performance in the first half, there was control to it, mixed football, which you know I absolutely love, there were good set pieces, a good quality goal for Vokesy after fine play from Andre and then Boydy, to set that up.

"There was a really healthy mixture of different ways of affecting a game, and then equally I was very impressed with the second half, because, yet again, different way of handling the fixture to make sure you win it."

With Ward adding to his FA Cup goal at Middlesbrough, the only player in the side without a league goal at the John Smith's Stadium is keeper Tom Heaton: "That would be weird if he does score! "We are the top scorers in the division, ironically for a team which is sometimes mentioned as being defensive, which is always a strange one to me.

"But people talk about possession, and we don't have as much possession, but you have to penetrate with your possession, and we show that we can do that - we are the top scorers."