Barnes sees red to put Burnley on the brink

JOSE MOURINHO might have called it poetic justice as Ashley Barnes was sent off on the stroke of halftime to deliver a major blow to Burnley’s prospects of staying in the Premier League.

Burnley were left feeling hard-done-by as referee Mike Jones denied them a couple of possible penalties and more significantly allowed Kevin Mirallas to stay on the pitch for a tackle worse than anything Barnes did.

All that would be called Karma in Mourinho’s book. Chelsea’s manager criticised the Burnley forward for a ‘criminal challenge’ on Nemanja Matic at Stamford Bridge in February when he escaped unpunished and Matic was sent off for retaliation. Yesterday, Barnes wasn’t so lucky, getting a first yellow card for an attempted sliding tackle on James McCarthy and a second for a foul on Séamus Coleman.

‘It was just two silly challenges, not malicious,’ said Dyche. ‘But at least the referee got that one right.’

That was a pithy way of explaining he was less than happy with Mr Jones for denying Burnley penalties for a John Stones challenge on Barnes and an attempt by McCarthy to bring down Scott Arfield. And Dyche was furious that Mirallas stayed on the pitch for a high lunge on George Boyd early in the second half.

‘That was the biggest one,’ said Dyche. ‘High, late. I’ve no clue why it wasn’t a red card.

‘I don’t want to see players surround referees. We don’t. Maybe we should because other teams would have done after the Mirallas challenge. 10 v 10 is a lot easier than 10 v 11.’

Predictably, Everton boss Roberto Martinez had a contrasting viewpoint. ‘I don’t think it was a red card at all. He stands on his feet in the challenge. It was well-controlled,’ he added before slightly contradicting himself. ‘It was a typical striker’s challenge.’

Decisions aside, it was clear Everton were the better team and deserved the victory given to them on 29 minutes when Arouna Kone dummied Coleman’s cross and Mirallas finished at the second attempt for his 10th goal of the season. They had already missed a penalty from Ross Barkley by that stage.

Burnley’s Tom Heaton was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers and when the visitors had a late chance to equalise, it fell to out-of-sorts Danny Ings who headed Kieran Trippier’s cross wide. Burnley’s brave battle against the drop is in danger of running out of steam, perhaps due to Dyche’s policy of naming unchanged teams. Leicester’s win leaves The Clarets bottom of the table having scored only one goal in their last seven matches. They face Leicester next weekend and it’s a must-win.

If they had been spurred on by the record-breaking Test cricket exploits in the Caribbean of Burnley fan Jimmy Anderson, it didn’t show.

After ten minutes, David Jones pulled down Aaron Lennon on the edge of the box and they both fell inside. Baines, whose Premier League record from the spot is 15 out of 16, didn’t take it. Barkley did and the effort was saved by Heaton with Martinez unconvincingly stating afterwards he applauded the youngster’s confidence for stepping up. At least it didn’t deny Everton a win as Mirallas did when he grabbed the ball off Baines against West Brom in January and missed his penalty.

‘I was very pleased with the overall performance,’ said Martinez whose side could still finish a moderate season in the top half of the table.

Burnley would bite your hand off at 17th and Dyche still believes in the great escape. ‘We were decent in the first half and excellent in the second when we were a man down,’ he said.