THE message from players and management coming out of Turf Moor over the past few weeks has been clear: The goals will come.

Sean Dyche has been showing no signs of panic and his squad have followed suit. Chances had been created and once one goes in, all will be well again, they said.

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In a way the pressure had been taken off the strikers due to the performances at the back.

For every question Dyche has fielded on the goal drought in recent weeks, he has been asked another about his superb back four and goalkeeper, who had kept three successive clean sheets before Sunday's trip to the Hawthorns.

Burnley hadn’t looked like a team who would get turned over this season, even by the big boys, so to ship four goals to a West Brom side who had only scored three times in five league games before this encounter will hurt.

But long-term it is not the defence that will be the deciding factor in the Clarets season. Defeats will come at this level, and it was a rare collective bad day for the back four.

Going forward, the goal drought now stretches to 616 minutes, and it never looked like ending here.

The Clarets are of course without last season’s deadly duo Sam Vokes and Danny Ings and that is difficult to overcome.

But in Lukas Jutkiewicz they have a striker who has impressed in the opening weeks of the season.

He was devoid of service at the Hawthorns though, and there lies the real problem – not enough chances are being created.

It is hard to be too critical of any of Burnley’s fit strikers over the past few games. They haven’t missed any glaring opportunities but still the wait for a second goal of the season goes on.

With Ings and Vokes out Dyche opted for a rare change from his 4-4-2 system, bringing in Michael Kightly for Marvin Sordell, which meant just Jutkiewicz up front, and the returning Ross Wallace, George Boyd and Kightly behind him.

In theory that meant more creativity in the side.

It didn’t work out that way.

Burnley failed to create anything even approaching a half chance in the first half. Baggies goalkeeper Ben Foster should really have been charged admission for all that he had to do in the opening 45 minutes.

One thing is for sure, Dyche won’t rip the blueprint up now, and he is right not to. His side might not be winning many plaudits for their attacking football, but that won’t concern anybody at Turf Moor.

In 2009/10 they were praised for the way they played, but went straight back down. The same happened to Blackpool a year later.

Teams rarely survive in the Premier League by playing on the front foot.

All that is needed is some fine-turning, particularly in the final third.

Burnley are usually well-organised and hard to break down. The key now is to continue to defend well while looking to find a threat going forward. It won’t be easy, but nobody expected it to be.