Burnley can repeat last season's success, says Aaron Lennon

Burnley ended a run of four league defeats with a 4-0 win against Bournemouth on Saturday

Aaron Lennon was on target in Burnley's 4-0 win against Bournemouth (Getty Images)

Aaron Lennon has suggested that Burnley’s season has finally begun properly after they climbed off the foot of the Premier League.

Sean Dyche’s side earned their first league victory of the season by defeating Bournemouth at Turf Moor, with Lennon scoring his first goal in the top division for two-and-a-half years after Matej Vydra had given them the lead.

Two late goals from substitute Ashley Barnes completed the win for a side who had to juggle domestic commitments with the Europa League before Olympiakos knocked them out last month.

Lennon said: “Confidence hadn’t really dipped because we knew we were doing things right. We are all honest lads in there, and we’ve had a couple of bad performances which we knew were not up to scratch. But this week has been good, we could feel it, and from minute one here you could see it we were on it.

“Regardless of how we won, the main thing is that we won, but this is just the beginning for us now. This is our first win but it is all about how we kick on from here now.”

Burnley finished seventh in May to qualify for Europe – and paradoxically, Lennon thinks that Burnley’s exit from the Europa League could help them to repeat last season’s achievement.

He said: “I don’t see why not. The squad is pretty much the same. We’ve brought in a few quality players, as you can see. Obviously we’re out of the Europa League now and we go back to one game a week so we get to work on the training pitch and hopefully we can kick on from there.”

Aaron Lennon believes Burnley can repeat last season's success (Getty)

Despite Burnley’s poor start in the league, manager Sean Dyche had rejected the idea that European competition was a distraction, dismissing that as an “easy story”.

However, their first league victory did come on the back of their first uninterrupted week of training together as a full squad since their Europa League campaign begun at Aberdeen in late July.

Lennon, for his part, was pleased to get his first goal for Burnley, and his first in the Premier League since scoring for Everton against West Ham in March 2016.

He said: “It’s been a long while. It’s been preying on my mind to be honest. I should score more. I’ve had a few chances this season but it is great to get the goal.”

Bournemouth, who may yet have European ambitions of their own after a fine start to the season had taken them into the Premier League’s top five, did not deserve to lose by four goals, although they were far from their best.

Eddie Howe’s side showed little of the sparkle that had seen them beat Leicester so convincingly seven days earlier, and according to defender Adam Smith, did not show enough fight either.

Smith said: “We didn’t do the dirty side of the game, if you know what I mean. We can do that side of it but it’s about doing it at places like this. We can do it at home and other places, but we didn’t do it well enough against a team who play to their strengths.”