But Dunny stuck to his task and gave the Burnley fans something to go silent over when he scored five minutes into injury time.
But it's just the type of thing you expect from Dunn and he would have enjoyed seeing the ball hit the back of the net as much as any of the Rovers fans in Ewood Park.
A pleased Appleton told reporters: "He's a talent, I think Dunny's one of those people a little bit similar to myself as a person.
"When people want to knock him he always comes out fighting, he always comes up with the answers. That's why I respect him, not only as a player, but as a person as well, because he's probably been written off on many occasions over the last couple of seasons but he keeps coming back.
"I'm delighted for him, as I was for everyone else in the dressing room at the end. I had a conversation with him last night at the hotel and we did joke about potential new contracts. I said it depends what you do over the next 10 games and how many games we win.
"He did remind me of that, as you can imagine, as we were going into the dressing room when he jumped on my back."