20.10.2013 02:15 h

Football: Dyche delighted as Burnley extend superb start

David Forde
David Forde

Sean Dyche believes Burnley are being rewarded for doing the dirty work as the Championship leaders continued their best start in more than 115 years with a 1-0 win at Ipswich.

Scott Arfield stooped to head home Kieran Trippier's cross with 10 minutes left at Portman Road on Saturday to seal a ninth win in 10 matches in all competitions.

The victory extended Burnley's lead at the top of the second tier to two points following second placed QPR's 2-2 draw at Millwall.

"It is all about small margins. They had the better of the first half but we had a solid framework, did the basics and were solid enough not to concede," Dyche said.

"The second half levelled out, although there were pockets of good play. I was thinking it was going to be a 0-0, and then a fine moment of quality saw a good cross and a good header."

QPR assistant manager Kevin Bond claimed his side had done enough to take all three points from their London derby at The Den.

Niko Kranjcar gave QPR the lead before the break, but Scott McDonald equalised for the hosts early in the second half.

Charlie Austin restored QPR's advantage, only for substitute Jermaine Easter to steal a point for Millwall in stoppage-time.

"I thought we should have won because we pretty much from a possession point of view controlled the game," Bond said.

"We were in charge. Millwall always carried a threat, but I thought we did well. We were still the better side but that is football."

Derby manager Steve McClaren praised the positive attitude of his assistant Paul Simpson after the decision to bring on Connor Sammon paid off when the substitute secured a 3-2 win at Watford.

Sammon notched with two minutes of normal time remaining after being played in by Will Hughes to end the Hornets' unbeaten home record.

Jamie Ward had scored twice either side of a Fernando Forestieri goal to give the Rams a 2-1 lead at the break before Lewis McGugan equalised to bring Watford level again midway through the second half.

"Paul Simpson was very good in that respect," former England boss McClaren said.

"We talked about the changes and it was a decision to make, do we put a defender on and try to stop the flow and try to hang on or change the system and try to go forward? And, to be fair, Paul Simpson was (saying) 'go for it, let's try and get the winner'."

Elsewhere, Leicester moved to within one point of QPR after seeing off 10-man Huddersfield 2-1 at the King Power Stadium.

Nottingham Forest remain fourth in the table after Bournemouth snatched a late 1-1 draw at the City Ground.

Blackpool did not miss manager Paul Ince, who served the first of his five-game stadium ban, as his son Tom scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Wigan.

Reading leapfrogged Watford in to sixth place with a comfortable 4-1 home win against Doncaster.

Barnsley moved off the foot of the table with a 3-2 home win over Middlesbrough.

Charlton won 1-0 at Blackburn, Bolton drew 1-1 with Sheffield Wednesday and Yeovil were held to a 0-0 draw by Brighton.