Burnley manager Sean Dyche was left incensed with the Video-Assistant-Referee after the system denied his team a point with Leicester City.

Chris Wood had initially put the Clarets ahead with a great header before goals from Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans turned the tide in Leicester’s favour. Wood thought he had rescued a point for Burnley after bundling in a loose ball via Jonny Evans. However, VAR adjudged that the New Zealand star had tripped Evans as the defender looked to divert the ball away from goal.

Replays of the incident show that Wood brushes the foot of Evans but the contact seemed so minimal. When somewhat obvious looking penalties are being ignored, it seems farcical that this incident resulted in the goal being chalked off.

Disappointment

Dyche remained positive about VAR but couldn’t hide his frustrations.

“Firstly, for the record I am a big fan of VAR," Dyche told the club’s official website. “I think it will streamline and improve things.

“When it’s used unwisely, like today, it’s a head-scratcher and today we are probably a cautionary tale of its development.

“To start with, before the game the referee (Jon Moss) told my coach that if he needed to use the screen at the side of the pitch, he would do, and to be tolerant if that was the case.

“He didn’t use the screen and if you are not going to use it for instances like that, I’m not sure when you will ever use it.

“Going to the moment of truth, if goals start not being given for that, we’re in trouble.

“Chris (Wood) has clearly not changed his running gait and if you look at his eyes they are only for the ball.

“The reason I’m bringing this level of detail up is that someone is sitting in a studio seeing everything I’m describing.

“They see 15 different angles of what I’m saying, and Chris is quite obviously not deliberately trying to trip the player up – for starters.

“Secondly, their lad is never going to get that ball and keep it out of the net in a million years.

“If he did, he’d be the quickest player on earth, so therefore in a game when people are falling over constantly every week, you just look at this incident and say ‘it’s a goal’.”

Positive signs

While clearly disappointed in VAR’s role, Dyche remained pleased with how his players conducted themselves. “I thought the performance, generally, was good”, he added.

“Don’t forget people are talking about Leicester breaking into the top four, but we certainly gave as good as we got and made them play slow and methodically.

“They got out of jail a little bit in the first half and then in the second half it was a poor second goal from our point of view.

“We’ve had our chances, but the bigger picture is we have moved a long way coming to places like this and performing like that.

“We are in a far better place than we were at this time last season and that has to be registered.”

The win leaves Leicester in third with 17 points while Burnley sit eighth. A point would have pushed the Clarets into seventh which would have seen them leapfrog Tottenham Hotspur. The Foxes travel to Southampton next week while Burnley will host high-flying Chelsea at Turf Moor. 

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