SEAN Dyche admitted he couldn’t write Joey Barton’s scripts after the midfield scored the winning goal against Southampton on his Turf Moor return.

Barton appeared to have played his final game for the Clarets at the end of last season when he opted for a move to Rangers rather than signing a new deal.

But he is back at the club after having his Ibrox contract terminated in November, and five minutes after coming off the bench for his second Turf Moor ‘debut’, he curled home a 25-yard free-kick to secure Burnley an eighth Premier League home win of the season.

“You can't make it up. I just said to him I couldn’t write your story,” said Dyche.

“Sublime finish, of course, he'll be telling everyone that anyway. We probably earned a scratch of luck today.”

Barton made his first appearance back at the club in last week’s FA Cup stalemate at Sunderland.

He has signed a deal until the end of the season, but could yet face a ban for an FA misconduct charge for betting on matches, for which he has until January 31 to respond.

Asked what Barton could bring to the Clarets, Dyche said: “We'll see. He's just come on today and played at Sunderland.

“He's experienced of course, there's a manliness to the way he goes about his performance and there's an assuredness from many years of playing top-level football around many clubs.

“For all he gets a bit of stick, he's so used to that, he brushes it off and gets on with it and focuses on his football.

“I felt it was appropriate for him to come back in to us. I've had no question marks about him before and I didn't see why I would again. So far, he's slotted in nicely again.”

Barton started at the Stadium of Light last week but found himself among the substitutes in the Premier League, and Dyche joked: “He said what do I do? He was confused by being sub.

“He said do I take my boots out with me, wear a t-shirt or wear a warm-up top or what?

“I said, ‘oi, you get on with it’. There was another word in there but you can imagine the sort of rapport built out of that moment.”

Dyche felt the Clarets were becoming more of a force as the game wore on and was pleased with a clean sheet against the Saints.

“As the game went on we were becoming more of a force, we were creating them maybes, half chances, you just said that feeling that something was going to drop for us,” he said.

“It was going to be a tight affair because they had the upper hand on us first half but didn't really open us up too many times, apart from a couple of slips first half.

“I was pleased with the defensive unit. I know they've had a couple of injuries but they still look a really good side so it was a good win for us.”

Dyche also hailed his captain Tom Heaton, who made a double save in the final minute to deny Jay Rodriguez and Josh Sims.

“The two saves at the end are tremendous,” he said. “What I'm really impressed with is Tom's focus.

“When games are going on front of you you've got to stay tuned in as a goalkeeper and that can be difficult.

“My centre-halfs, staying tuned in, at times when the ball's flashing across midfield, locating your centre forward, and then Tom stayed tuned in to the way the game panned out. I thought he did that tremendously well and made two fine saves at the end.”

Dyche also confirmed that Patrick Bamford, who was at Turf Moor for the game with Southampton, had been recalled by Chelsea.

“He's been called back by Chelsea today,” he said. “It is their prerogative to do that. It's part of the contract that was agreed so that's just the way it goes.”