Dyche 'Frustrated' As Clarets Denied Any Reward

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Burnley boss aggrieved by big decisions as unbeaten run ends

2020-12-27T15:54:40.381Z

Dyche 'Frustrated' As Clarets Denied Any Reward

Burnley boss aggrieved by big decisions as unbeaten run ends

2020-12-27T15:54:40.381Z

Burnley boss aggrieved by big decisions as unbeaten run ends

Sean Dyche said he was ‘aggrieved’ to be leaving Elland Road empty-handed after two big calls went against his team.

The Clarets lost 1-0 to Leeds United to see their four-match unbeaten run come to a controversial end.

Dyche was unhappy with the decision that led to Patrick Bamford’s winning penalty just five minutes in when the striker was judged to have been fouled by Clarets keeper Nick Pope.

And the Burnley boss was even more perplexed by referee Robert Jones’ decision not to give Ben Mee a spot-kick at the other end as he was flattened by Leeds keeper Illan Meslier a split-second before Ashley Barnes drilled the loose ball into the net.

Dyche 'Frustrated' As Clarets Denied Any Reward - Image 1

“I can’t see the penalty,” said Dyche, whose side went on to dominate the second half but was beaten for just the second time in eight games.

“I think Nick Pope gets a clear foot on it and the one at the other end – football is in such a strange place.

“The keeper goes through with his knee in Ben Mee’s back. Ben Mee has got nothing other than eyes for the ball. That’s all he’s concentrating on.

“It drops and the referee doesn’t give it a chance to see what happens, because it isn’t a foul.

“If you do that in the middle of the pitch – as an ex-centre-half and even in my day – if you put your knee in someone’s back like that when they’re trying to head the ball, not only are you giving a foul away, you’re going to get booked and, nowadays, with the softness of things, you’re probably in trouble.

“I have no clue where the game’s at, physically, at the moment. That’s a bizarre incident.

“Of course, we’re very aggrieved by that because those moments are very important in games. I am incredibly frustrated today, as you can imagine.”

Dyche 'Frustrated' As Clarets Denied Any Reward - Image 2

The Clarets paid the price for a slow start as Leeds set up a second successive home win to move into mid-table.

But Dyche’s men barely let the home side out of their own half after the break as they drove forward in a bid to avoid only a second away defeat in six away games.

And the manager was impressed with the attempted fightback which came up just short with an equalising goal proving elusive, despite a succession of openings in and around the penalty area.

“We never really got to grips with our performance in the first half but second half I’m super-pleased – the reaction of our players and the way we took it on,” added Dyche, whose side is back in action against Sheffield United at Turf Moor on Tuesday evening.

“In the second half we were terrific and completely out-ran them and out-performed them but couldn’t find the breakthrough.

“Even when we changed the shape we were still very productive at getting into the right areas.

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“We couldn’t fine the detail in the end, but we’ve been in that kind of form where we’ve looked effective and I thought in the second half we looked very effective.

“Credit to them because it’s not been easy for them to find a clean sheet and we have to do that sometimes when teams are very powerful against us, as we were against them today.

“I just think, aside of the referee and the officials, we’ve got to find the moments. We’ve done that well lately.

“We had so many chances to find the final key pass and find the final finish and we didn’t find that today.”