Dyche is at a Lossl why Burnley did not get a penalty and even Wagner admits it was one
AT the end of a year to remember for both sides came a match to forget — although it will take Sean Dyche some time to rid his mind of just how Burnley failed to come away with three points.
The high-flying visitors, who end 2017 dreaming of Europe, bossed this Roses clash for long periods and should have had a penalty when Ireland midfielder Jeff Hendrick was clearly brought down in the area by Huddersfield keeper Jonas Lossl in the second half. It was a stone wall Donald Trump would have been proud of, but for reasons known only to himself, referee Paul Tierney waved play on and the spoils were shared.
‘Obvious,’ was how Dyche described it. He was being diplomatic. ‘The only thing I will comment on,’ the frustrated Clarets manager added, ‘is that he goes down naturally — he’s not playing for it. The keeper catches his trailing leg.
‘It’s just a definite penalty, he doesn’t throw his arms everywhere. But that can’t make it not a penalty.’
When David Wagner entered the press room and claimed he did not see the incident, you feared an Arsene Wenger moment.
But the German went on to admit his jaded side, who will end the year in an excellent 11th place, got away with one.
‘I have spoken with Jonas and he said there was contact so it looks like we were lucky,’ said an honest Wagner.
‘They had more chances, they were the better side. We were not at our best. I’m very happy and very delighted that we have this point.’
With Hendrick, Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Steven Defour running the show, the Clarets underlined why their stunning first half
of the season is no fluke. At the break, the winner of the Terriers’ lottery competition came on to the pitch to pick a prize. He turned around the card which meant he walked away with the grand total of two car mats.
It reflected a first half which left those in the home sections with a feeling of anti-climax.
Lossl had been impressive on a number of occasions but the hero could — and should — have been the villain on the hour. Did Dyche get an explanation from the official? ‘I think he [Tierney] said he felt Hendrick lost his footing — well he did because the keeper caught his foot. I thought the ref did a good job, just not on that incident.
‘I don’t think we’ve had one this season in the Premier League.’
With both sides cancelling each other out — there was more life in the MCG pitch at the last Ashes Test than in the closing stages of this one — Dyche turned to former Huddersfield man Nakhi Wells. The striker, who departed these parts for Burnley for £5m in August, was given a warm welcome by the home support but they were almost cursing him when he got on the end of Sam Vokes’s towering header.
Wells’s sliding close-range toe poke, however, was comfortably held by Lossl and the Terriers, who have performed above expectation in the top flight, added another point to an impressive tally which now stands at 24. Dyche chose to stay over in Huddersfield on Friday night instead of making the 25-mile transPennine journey on Saturday morning. You would imagine, following Mr Tierney’s intervention, he could not get out of here quick enough last night.