"We knew" - Kyle Walker's Leeds United admission after Burnley win and declaration about key figure's presence
Burnley’s Kyle Walker has given his take on Saturday’s 2-0 defeat of Leeds United at Turf Moor.
Kyle Walker played a key role in helping Burnley beat Leeds United at Turf Moor and then made an admission about how his men saw the game.
England international right-back Walker ended eight years with Manchester City when joining Burnley in the summer and the 35-year-old starred as Scott Parker’s Clarets saw off Daniel Farke’s Whites.
Burnley went into Saturday afternoon’s Premier League clash at Turf Moor sat third-bottom having taken just four points from their first seven games and Walker admitted after the victory that his side knew the importance of the visit of fellow top-flight new boys Leeds.
The right-back’s superb cross set up Lesley Ugochukwu to head home the opening goal of the game, paving the way for a second victory of the season that took Burnley just one point behind Farke’s Whites.
“I think we’ve handled it well”
A delighted Walker then saluted the importance of the success - but also declared that his men had taken lessons from narrow defeats to Liverpool and Manchester United ahead of the visit of Leeds.
"We knew the importance of this game coming into it,” said Walker post-match to Burnley’s official website.
"I thought the first six, seven fixtures that we've had have being difficult ones, but I think we've handled it well.
"We've taken a lot of lessons and a lot of learning curves from it. And then we put that in today, a clean sheet first and foremost and two goals which we’re crackers to be fair.”
Reflecting on narrow recent defeats to Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa but getting it right against the Whites, Walker said: “Man United penalty, Liverpool penalty. I felt that we dug in before the international break against Aston Villa but just fell short.”
Hailing the ‘presence’ of Ugochukwu to head home his cross, Walker reasoned: “Lesley’s a big presence in the box and when you’ve got a presence like him you just need to put the ball in there and hopefully someone will get on the end of it. So, don’t worry about the cross it’s full congratulations to him.”