BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche felt his side’s first-half dominance made them worthy of ending Nottingham Forest’s 14-game unbeaten run to boost their own promotion prospects.

Billy Davies’ fifth-placed side were just five points behind the Clarets going into Saturday’s game, and were expected to pose a stern test despite a number of injuries.

But Burnley blew them away with three goals – two for Sam Vokes – in the first 35 minutes, and might have had more with top scorer Danny Ings going close, while Michael Duff had one chalked off for offside.

Forest staged a second-half fightback, but only had Djamel Abdoun’s 80th-minute goal to show for it.

“I don’t think a game’s ever over at half time but I think the performance warranted it to be,” said Dyche.

“That first half was exceptional at times. It could have been more, maybe should have been, but the way we used the ball, the clever play, the movement from the team.

“They know they’ve got that allowance to perform. We want them to play free-flowing football and there were certainly very encouraging signs again.

“It was top class, free-flowing football and looked like we could score at will against a very strong Nottingham Forest side.

“To put a side out like that, with injuries, is a marker of the size of the club, the size of the budget and the strength they’ve got in depth there.

“I thought we were absolutely first class.

“Some people have said the football was as good as they’ve seen at Turf Moor for a long, long time.

“We’ve encouraged that all season, I think it’s been enjoyable for our fans to come to Turf Moor this season with the quality of football and it was certainly on show again.”