Half time: Clarets 0 Magpies 0

74 mins Defending the end where the away support were housed, Florian Lejeune cleared the ball out to Matt Ritchie on the right. He helped it on to Ayoze Perez who then looked to be muscled off the ball by Steven Defour as he moved infield, midway in his own half. 

On closer inspection if could have been a free-kick but no whistle followed and Jack Cork played a wall pass with Johann Berg Gudmundsson before firing in a shot that Rob Elliot blocked. The ball fell back to Gudmundsson on the right side of the area and his lofted centre picked out the unmarked Jeff Hendrick inside the six yard box at the far post. 

Cushioning the ball on his thigh, he lifting a shot into the roof of the net over DeAndre Yedlin's despairing dive and into the unguarded net, Elliot on the floor in the middle of the six yard box following an unsuccessful attempt to cut out the cross 0-1

Full time: Clarets 1 Magpies 0

Rafa Benitez:

"It was a game were controlling. We knew one goal would win it and that's what happened. I think it was an even game - we could have won, we could have lost. We made the mistake and that was it.

"We made a mistake and after we were out of position. I don't like to name anyone but we didn't do what we had to do.

"It was two teams that knew what to do. We had 12 attempts away from goal, nine in the second half, we tried to win the game, but we were not very precise.

"We still had chances and some attempts but these kinds of games you have to make sure you're strong enough in defence and a little better in attack.

"We have to improve with everything but we are happy with the work rate and the way the players approached the game."

Rob Elliot added:

"I've been here a long time now and losing 1-0 after not playing our best and to be clapped off by all the travelling fans shows where the club's at at the moment. 

"The players are hurting after running themselves into the ground. It just didn't come off. 

"We were lacking a bit of quality, but the desire and hunger were there. Everyone gave everything, but it wasn't our night. 

"We need to make sure we don't dwell on it too long and use that disappointment to push us into Bournemouth. We just need to make sure we're ready to go and put it right and get on the front foot and keep our momentum going. 

"Defeats happen, and it's OK if you come back from them. You can't accept it and move on - you have to put it right on a Saturday. We've got a good opportunity in four or five days time, especially with the fans getting behind us."

Celebrating the fifth anniversary of becoming Burnley boss, Sean Dyche said:

"It's been a very strong start. 

"I have been ever so pleased, the lads have been fantastic, they listen, want to learn, give everything, and there is a willingness and demand, but there's also talent there. A lot of good signs again tonight.

"The margins are tight and I said before the game I would be surprised if it wasn't a tight game. 

"They have been very organised and compact under a fine manager who knows how to organise a side. They are making a good show of it this season but so are we and respect to our team when teams are coming here and they are very organised, not open and expansive.

"That's a little respect from our home form last season. We knew we would have to keep going and fight for every inch and play for every inch and I thought we did that.

"We have never made it that we are an expansive side who play 600 passes a game, I don't think that's relevant to this group, but I think we can play a bit and find weaknesses in teams over 95 minutes and we did that tonight."

About being linked with the Everton vacancy:

"I just keep getting on with my job, simple as that.

"We just keep getting on with it. That's my focus and my team's focus. We have to do planning of course, but generally we take each game as it comes, we work on that, then we process the information, debrief it and we move forward again and keep that clarity of thought. 

"That's how we keep going."

This Monday night meeting of two top half teams held few surprises - and little entertainment for the live TV audience, who must have wondered exactly why this game appeared in the schedules.

Sky's current fixation with Newcastle has seen them drag their followers across the nation on four consecutive Sunday slots so far, yielding a trio of 1-0 outcomes, plus a 2-2 draw at Southampton when the players went off-message and forgot to defend properly.

Another single goal was duly produced from this latest 90 minute example of game management, when Newcastle did what Newcastle do away on the road, and Burnley felt no obligation as the home team to seize the initiative.

Sean Dyche's caution may have been partly explained by being deprived by injury of four strikers (messrs Wood, Vokes, Wells and Walters), but a lack of unrest or any discernible noise at all from home fans underscored the acceptance that on such tactics is top-flight status preserved. 

We're in a related mindset, meaning that two sides with similar outlooks proceeded to indulge in some shadow boxing and cancelled each other out for well over an hour.

While not the most edifying of spectacles though, all but the most inexperienced or fortunate away fan present will have had trips where we've managed to combine a lack of forward menace with any semblance of defensive cohesion. Substituting containment for embarrassment gets our vote.  

In addition to frustrating elements of the single goal defeats at Huddersfield and Brighton, some of the hallmarks of the 1-0 win at Swansea and at home to Crystal Palace were also evident. The narrow margins necessarily mean that some go one way and some the other, but a win and a loss remain better for our points tally than draws. 

Putting aside the desire for Keeganesque score one more than you attacking, perhaps our major failing here was a lack of quality from set pieces - and as one fellow traveller noted, having your two best ball players in Shelvey and Ritchie both going towards the corner flag to play it over leaves a needless gap on the edge of the box for the second ball. 

One lapse cost us a likely point, Jeff Hendrick shooting home 14 minutes from time to provoke a trio of hasty substitutions from United; although such was our lack of urgency and intensity that the redoubling of effort wasn't immediate.

Having managed just one effort on target at 0-0 - Perez bringing a stop out of Pope early in the second half - Isaac Hayden and Javier Manquillo both went close to levelling in added time.

That this was a below-par display isn't in question, as is the fact that ten games in, we remain a team in transition from the Championship to the Premier League. 

The grumbling about Joselu and Ayoze Perez is far from universal, but there's far less uncertainty when considering the laboured contribution of Mo Diame, starting his first top-flight match since December 2014 and looking like he'd hiked over the moors, not come on the team bus.

Diame appeared in a deep midfield role after Mikel Merino was ruled out with a back injury, while and a slight doubt over Isaac Hayden (in addition to his being one booking off a ban) meant that Henri Saivet crept almost unnoticed on to the bench. 

That the Senegalese duo were here at all highlights our lack of depth, not to mention how far Jack Colback's star has fallen. Another six goal howking for the U23 side elsewhere tonight meanwhile underlines the lack of alternatives beneath the senior squad - the U18s similarly bereft.

There will be another 11 league games played before the next transfer window opens, but it's already evident to many watchers including the management where we need to strengthen. 

Unlike previous administrations, genuine preparation for that window is underway - not some idle report filing of players with a price tag and wage demands we have no hope of meeting. 

The unanswerable question remains what funds will be made available to Rafa: barring a minor miracle though, January 2018 will look a lot like August 2017 in terms of funding as the same beer-swilling sports shop proprietor will be holding the purse strings.  

Until then, the task of getting the best out of the current squad remains a significant job of work - not least establishing whether Dwight Gayle really will always score goals, as the song says.

If there is a concern, it's that we've started off at the softer end of away fixture programme and the real daunting tests are yet to come. How the game plan evolves for those remains to be seen, but don't rule out Ciaran Clark coming back into consideration in some way, shape or form.  

Biffa