THERE is no shame in losing to the Premier League champions but for Burnley it is the manner of their defeat at the King Power Stadium that will hurt.

For 45 minutes they were in the game. Calm and controlled in possession, keeping the ball well, nullifying the Foxes threat and creating opening of their own. The game plan was working.

Then came what Sean Dyche described as ‘four minutes of madness’.

Matt Lowton conceded a needless free-kick in first half injury time and the Clarets were punished.

Three minutes into the second half they were 2-0 down, and having played so well for the first 45 minutes, the second half was a major disappointment.

Instead of rousing themselves for a response and exerting some pressure on the Leicester goal, Burnley retreated into their shell. The second half passed them by, it was a meek surrender, and there was clear frustration amongst the players at the way that what appeared to be a promising afternoon had fallen apart.

The major surprise had come an hour before kick-off, with Dyche ditching the preferred 4-4-2 and setting Burnley up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Dean Marney and Jeff Hendrick the deep midfielders, and Steven Defour pushed further forward towards Andre Gray.

The Clarets chief said the plan had been to keep hold of the ball and take the sting out of the home side and it worked, there were plenty of passing options for Burnley players when they were on the ball and they started brightly, with George Boyd and Stephen Ward a threat down the left hand side.

One element of Leicester’s game that is always difficult to plan for is the trickery and elusive feet of Riyad Mahrez, and he created their first real sight of goal with a slaloming run, darting in between a couple of challenges on halfway and then past a sliding Stephen Ward, before producing a couple of stepovers in the area and firing a right-footed shot at goal which Tom Heaton saved with his legs.

With 10 minutes of the first half remaining both teams missed magnificent headed opportunities within the space of 60 seconds.

Burnley produced an incisive passing move which saw Boyd reach the byline down the left. His backpost cross was headed back across goal by Scott Arfield to an unmarked Defour, but from six yards out he planted his header straight at Ron-Robert Zieler, when either side of the goalkeeper would almost  certainly have produced a goal.

At the other Christian Fuchs’ pinpoint cross was inviting for Mahrez, but he planted his header just wide of goal.

It looked like the Clarets were going to head into the interval all square until the first mad moment arrived.

Lowton had struggled against Albrighton during the first half and then found himself too far from the former Aston Villa man, needlessly jumping into him to contest a header he was never going to win.

Fuchs produced another superb cross from the free-kick and Premier League debutant Islam Slimani headed home from six yards.

If Burnley were still in the game at 1-0 down, then it was all but gone early in the second half.

There was an element of good fortune about it, but Jamie Vardy was afforded too much space to find Mahrez in a dangerous position inside the area. He tried to return the ball to Vardy but it was deflected behind the striker, who threw a boot at it and managed to loop it up for Slimani who again headed home from close range.

It was from here that Burnley’s afternoon really collapsed. They had earned a great deal of credit with their first half display but now they failed to lay a glove on the champions.

Mahrez was continuing to be their chief tormentor and he set the third goal up, gliding past Ward as if he wasn’t there and sending in a low cross which Ben Mee inadvertently turned past Heaton.

Burnley finally tested Zieler in the second half 10 minutes from time, but the German reacted well to spring back to his right and palm Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s deflected free-kick to safety, and ensure the Foxes kept hold of their clean sheet.