SEAN Dyche refused to use injuries as an excuse after Burnley slipped to the bottom of the Premier League table with a 4-0 loss at West Bromwich Albion yesterday.

Dyche suffered the heaviest defeat of his reign as Clarets boss after his injury-hit side were outclassed at the Hawthorns.

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Burnley – without central midfielders Dean Marney and David Jones, as well as regular strikers Danny Ings and Sam Vokes – slipped below Newcastle United at the bottom of the table on goal difference.

The Magpies travel to Stoke City tonight and only a two-goal defeat will lift the Clarets back off the bottom.

“We had to make changes but that’s why you have a squad,” Dyche said. “You want the players to come in and deliver performances. It’s a squad game in the Premier League.

“We pride ourselves on our performance levels, how the players operate and how they’re game ready but there weren’t signs of that today.

“We’re as disappointed with the performance. We never got going from the first whistle and you can’t afford to do that in the Premier League.

“The only thing you’d say with Jonah and Marns is that they’ve struck up a very good relationship in midfield, and they know each other’s games and the team’s game well.

“Obviously it never looked that way today, particularly in the first half.”

The result leaves Burnley still without a win this season and now without a goal in 616 minutes – more than 10 hours of football.

Dyche admits the afternoon was a lesson in the harsh realities of Premier League football and stressed that his players must learn from the result.

“We looked a little bit unsure of ourselves from the off,” he said.

“We’ve only had that once this season, the first half at Swansea, then second half we were excellent.

“Today we never really found our feet from the first whistle to the last.

“Now and again it happens, we’ve gone up a level. On a low day last season in the Championship you can get away with it, you can hang on in there.

“You can’t at this level and I thought there were signs of that.

“Tom Heaton hasn’t had save after save to make, yet he’s had to pick the ball out of the net four times. That’s the clinical edge to the finishing.

“We’ve got to learn from that. On a bad day we’ve still got to find a way of dealing with it and hanging in there.”

Striker Lukas Jutkiewicz picked up a slight knock in the second half at the Hawthorns but Dyche said: "I don't think it's serious.”

Jones missed out with a thigh problem picked up late on against Sunderland a week ago, while Marney was absent with a hamstring problem.

Both will be assessed this week ahead of Saturday’s trip to Leicester City.

"We'll see with them,” Dyche said.

“There are no guarantees but Jonah got off the pitch quickly last week so he managed to have a good week but didn’t quite make it.

"Marns happened late on Friday in training, so we'll see if that gets better with time.”