Burnley manager Sean Dyche slammed his side's first-half performance as the Clarets were well beaten in a 3-0 defeat to Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. 

Dyche admits that his side's performance in the first 45 minutes was quite simply not good enough, and as poor as they'd been since the first half of last season. 

For Dyche, it brought back memories of the kind of form that saw his side dragged into a relegation scrap 12 months ago.  

"First half, probably everything," Dyche told the Lancashire Telegraph. 

"Other than not getting a couple of decisions, which might have got us out of jail - and it would have been getting us out of jail by the way, to make that clear.

“They started better than us, more aggressive in their manner, their body language, on the front foot, more energy, more commitment to the cause, and that remained throughout the first half.

“We made mistakes, they capitalised on it, and we don’t want that to become a habit after last week.

“It was as poor a showing we’ve had since early last season, first half.

“But Sheffield United were excellent, they forced us into mistakes, they pressed, they had a good shape, and good energy and played with that edge which you have to have in the Premier League.

“You can never come away from that.

“Maybe the fact they’re still new to it, the excitement of it, and I said to the players, you never lose that, you need that edge every time you play, and we were miles off it first half.”

The Clarets saw several decisions not go their way in the first-half, Jay Rodriguez going down under contact early on and VAR ruling the ball hitting Jack O’Connell’s hand was not a penalty. ­­­­­

“Maybe, Jay Rod gets clipped, we’ve seen them given, though we don’t get many of them - people keep talking about these tiny contacts and he gets one and doesn’t dive, falls naturally, appeals and doesn’t get it,” he said.

“And I think the handball is handball, and I think everyone else would expect it. But I need to be clear, that would have got us out of jail, we were miles off first half and they were miles better than us.”