Burnley boss Eddie Howe pointed to his teams defence and their second half display for securing a narrow 1-0 win away to Hull. The Clarets scored the winner after only five minutes then had to withstand constant pressure from the Tigers.

Howe said: "We showed a real desire to win the game tonight. The second clean sheet in a row pleases me more than anything.

"The lads were dogged and determined. We've tried to play quite compact and be difficult to penetrate and the whole team - from back to front - defended very well."

"When we needed him, our goalkeeper made some great saves," said Howe of Lee Grant. "He made some really good saves.

"He came for a couple of crosses when he needed to and punched some balls away."

However, Howe wouldn't be drawn on his side's play-off ambitions, despite having games in hand.

Howe added: "I haven't seen it (the table) but I probably will have a look at it tonight. I'm pleased but I'm going to be boring now and say we look to Saturday."

Hull counterpart Nigel Pearson was disappointed with the quality of the goal conceded.

"The disappointing thing is we've been beaten by a really poor goal" said Pearson.

"They'll probably think it's a good one. It's the first time that corner has worked - we've seen it a few times on the DVD and we know what it's about.

"That's a sucker punch. But we've haven't played well, that's the bottom line."

But Pearson refused to rule out his players' promotion chances despite this loss.

The Tigers are now seven points off the play-off pace and Pearson added: "The players feel a bit frustrated they haven't been able to get into their stride.

"There's still 10 games left, 30 points to play for. People might write us off, but that might be good for us."