Burnley 2-2 Spurs | Thomas Frank’s verdict

Thomas Frank highlighted Burnley’s equaliser just before half-time as a momentum changer as it finished 2-2 at Turf Moor in the Premier League on Saturday.

Setting up with the same system that did so well against Borussia Dortmund in midweek – with Micky van de Ven at left-back and Djed Spence pushed further forward – we produced an equally impressive display for the first 44 minutes.

Indeed, we created chance after chance – 10 by the break – only to have van de Ven’s strike on 38 minutes as a reward as home goalkeeper Martin Dubravka produced save after save. Burnley then hit us with a gut punch to level through Axel Tuanzebe just before half-time.

We didn’t have as much control in the second half and the Clarets took the lead through Lyle Foster on 76 minutes. We kept probing away, Dubravka made the save of the day to deny Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons rattled the crossbar before Cuti Romero struck again – his sixth of the season – to at least salvage a point with 89 minutes on the clock.

“It's definitely a game we should have won,” reflected Thomas on SPURSPLAY afterwards. “It's very frustrating not to stand here with three points. I think the boys do a lot of things right throughout the game.

“I think especially the first half is good - coming here, dominating and scoring the 1-0 goal. We should have, could have, got the second, then I think we are, if not out of sight, we're definitely in an even better position. Then we concede a goal just before half-time - we can never, ever, concede that goal. That just brings a little bit of a bad feeling into the changing room.

“We try to do everything we can to change it, but the second half is not as controlled in the way we want it to be. We still create a big chance to Dom. That could have put us 2-1 up and then, you know, momentum changed a little bit again.

“Then we concede another goal, we can't concede that either. After that, the boys show great character, fighting, doing everything they can to get back in the game, create three or four big chances, score one of them, get 2-2, but it's frustrating we don't get three. We should have got three with the performance.”

Asked about the importance of that Burnley leveller just before half-time in terms of a shift in momentum, Thomas added: “I think first half, that's where we need to… football is about momentum and when you're on top of it, you need to score the second goal, which we didn't. If you don't do that, then make sure we don't concede the 1-1. That's the big thing.

“It’s extremely frustrating that we are standing here doing a lot of things right, not perfect, but a lot of things right - more than enough to get a lot more points than we’ve got. There's only one way - that's head down, work hard, do more, keep fighting, keep doing the right things, keep walking forward. And that's what we'll do.”