BRIAN Laws left Turf Moor with the points and a smile, but the Burnley manager admitted he wasn’t happy with the overall performance.

A Chris Iwelumo hat-trick and a late winner from Burnley-born striker Jay Rodriguez secured a dramatic win over Lancashire rivals Preston North End.

But Laws was disappointed it needed a late turnaround to keep their 100 per cent start at Turf Moor intact, after Preston took a 3-1 lead.

Iwelumo headed the Clarets in front after only eight minutes but Darren Ferguson's men responded with first-half goals from Adam Barton and Keith Treacy, before Jon Parkin looked to have wrapped it up with 20 minutes to go.

However, with Preston down to 10 men after Billy Jones was sent off for a second bookable offence, Iwelumo started the comeback in the 84th minute with a stunning right-foot volley, completing his hat-trick four minutes later. And Rodriguez snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with his first goal of the season.

“What a derby!” said a relieved Laws.

“I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like that one.

“It had everything. It’s got seven goals, it’s got tackles going in, which you’d expect, passion which all the players showed and both sides gave it a real go.

“There are always turning points in these games, and certainly at 3-1 down the turning point was the sending off.

“The last time that happened, when we played against Swansea, we had 14 seconds to work with it, which didn’t really help us at all. This time we had 15-20 minutes and we utilised it.

“What we did better was pass the ball quicker rather than dawdle on and look at too many options. We moved it quicker, didn’t think about it and of course that allowed us to get up the pitch. We penned them in for so long and just couldn’t get that goal. But when it did come it lifted everybody, the crowd got going and you could sense it on the touchline that we were going to get a third. I wasn’t so sure about the fourth! But I’ll take it.”

However, he added: “I’ll take the three points for sure, but there are too many negatives for me to dismiss or brush under the carpet.

“From my perspective I was disappointed. I felt in the first half we weren’t anywhere near where we should have been.

“I thought they had a good gameplan on us, which worked because they went man for man on our midfield players and didn’t give an inch of space.

“Our midfield players should be fluent but they gave the ball away too many times, and every time they gave it away they counter-attacked on it.

“I was disappointed with that.

“We said at half-time we needed to step the passing up a lot better and brighter and I said the next goal was always going to be key and to make sure it’s us.

“I didn’t expect them to get it.

“I thought the introduction of Chris Eagles, Jack Cork and Jay Rodriguez gave us a bit more impetus, we were a little bit sharper in our passing and we started to be more creative, and in the end, we’ve won the game through it.

“It’s not how you start, I suppose, it’s how you finish.”

And Laws applauded late heroics from his strikers.

“Chris is very effective. He showed as well he’s very effective with his feet. What a second goal!” he said.

“It was a great hat-trick for him.

“And Jay’s got us off the hook.”