BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche believes diving remains a real problem in English football following the Clarets' 3-0 defeat at Manchester City.

The home side opened the scoring from the spot when Bernardo Silva went down under minimal contact from Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope and Sergio Aguero converted from 12-yards.

Dyche felt the decision to award a penalty was soft although he admitted there had been contact between the players.

The Turf boss has regularly criticised diving but is not interested in a one-man crusade to try and eradicate it from the game.

He said: "I don’t think I should pursue it, I’ve said my piece. I only bring it up today because of the incident.

“I don’t think I need to go in about it, nobody really wants to run with it.

“I’m surprised. It’s the moral values of the game I worry about. I’ve got a 14-year-old and I don’t want him doing that.

“I said the other week, and I mean this, if your kid cheated in a maths test you wouldn’t say ‘well done’. You’d be down the school saying ‘sorry, he cheated, he needs to do that again’.

“But weirdly in football it’s ‘good lad’, I find it really weird and morally odd.

“Accidental simulation as they call it, there’s too many in this league to be accidental."

The Clarets boss was pleased with his side's display against Pep Guardiola's unbeaten league leaders although Dyche did feel that big decisions, such as the penalty call, tend to go the way of the big clubs.

“I think that’s been going on for years," he said. "That’s part and parcel of the game. No-one can quite define why it is, so we just get on with that side of things.

“I’m more about the detail within that. You’ve got to understand decisions here are important because you don’t see much of the ball, so when you do see it you might be effective with it. It’s a new start point and breaks the rhythm of the game.

"But I make it clear, this is not about the outcome, they’re a fine side and there’s no excuses in this.

“We stuck at it, huffed and puffed and kept going, and I like the fact we keep going and going, even at the end we’re still trying to nick a goal.

“We’re still learning at this level. When you’re at these top boys, particularly away from home, it’s very difficult, they keep the ball, diffuse the game, everyone is comfortable with it, they’ve got pace, power and passing ability."