Sean Dyche heaped praise on his midfielder Steven Defour, after the Burnley man scored a superb goal to help book the club’s passage through to the fifth round of the Emirates FA Cup at the expense of Bristol City.

The Belgium international impudently clipped the ball over Robins goalkeeper Fabian Giefer from the edge of the area to score Burnley’s second after Sam Vokes had opened the scoring in the first half.

And Dyche hailed the latest of Defour’s immense displays for the Clarets, which he believed was key in helping see off the Championship strugglers.

On the goal itself, Dyche admitted the strike ‘was absolutely sublime and a marvellous moment following a very good team performance,’ and to ‘kill a game off with a finish like that is exceptional. Steven deserves all the plaudits he gets this weekend and hopefully it’s lots of them.’

The Burnley boss also acknowledged that Defour ‘makes good runs anyway, but he’s just found that moment of clarity that comes with quality players,’ and exclaimed the midfielder’s goal was ‘a sublime finish, it’s as simple as that,’ before adding ‘he’s a quality footballer.’

Dyche was also forthcoming in admitting that the summer signing from RSC Anderlecht ‘is adjusting and I think he’s getting there,’ and insisted the club ‘are seeing clear signs of him showing what he and we need and he’s doing a good job of that.’

'It was really nicely done'

Defour’s fellow goalscorer Vokes confessed he was in awe of the audacity of his teammate’s effort, which exhibited the Belgian’s quick-thinking and technical prowess to pull off the strike.

The Clarets forward joked he ‘was still trying to get up with play at the time,’ but even he ‘didn’t see the chip was on to be honest. I think he was the only man in the ground who saw and what a great finish.’

And the man of the moment himself admits his satisfaction at seeing the striker come off, revealing post-match the goal ‘felt pretty good. When I made the control I saw the goalkeeper a bit out of his goal so I thought ‘why not?’

Defour also added his effort was ‘a pretty nice goal. I have scored some nice goals but this was really nicely done.’

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