SEAN Dyche hit out at the conduct of Olympiakos players and officials and said he 'hadn't seen a balanced game' after the Clarets were beaten 3-1 in Athens.

The home side were furious with Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic's first half performance when he awarded the Clarets a penalty, which Chris Wood scored, but then turned down two appeals for Olympiakos.

When the second appeal, for handball against Stephen Ward, was waved away just before half-time the Olympiakos bench reacted in fury and spilled on to the pitch.

Dyche then questioned the way dozens of Olympiakos officials surrounded Vincic and his assistants in the tunnel at half-time.

After the break Ben Gibson was bizarrely sent-off for a second yellow card when he was penalised in the area for handball, and Dyche hinted that the scenes at half-time could have been the catalyst for that.

“After the incident where they tried for a penalty, which wasn’t a penalty, I don’t know how many people ran on the pitch and surrounded the referee and the linesman and the officials," the Clarets chief said.

"All I keep getting told is respect the officials with your conduct around the referee."

"The scenes I saw at half-time from all and sundry around the referee on their side. They were waiting for the referee. You all saw the feel of the game was different in the second half. You’re left scratching your head.

“There were plenty of people involved in the tunnel, waiting for the referee to come in and let him know ion no uncertain times what they felt.

“We are given very strict guidelines from UEFA and the Premier League about respect towards the referees and we did what we always do in that we walked straight down the tunnel into our dressing room. And at the end by the way too. You didn’t see me speak to the officials at all.

“It was interesting because there were that many people involved. It wasn’t just the people on the bench, it was all sorts of people from the offices. The tea lady was there at one point! That’s a joke.

“But there were plenty of people there making it clear they were not happy with the referee’s performance.”

Of the decision to penalise Gibson for handball and send him off, Dyche said: “They miraculously...when one of our players goes to block the ball, it hits his hip then his hand, that’s deemed a professional handball and he’s sent off."

Dyche said he felt for the 1,000-plus travelling Clarets who 'hadn't seen a balanced game'.

The Burnley boss is hoping next week's return leg will be a different affair and he insisted his team remain in the tie.

"I feel for our fans, they’ve come a long way to see a balanced game and haven’t seen that," Dyche said.

"Hopefully next week will be more even."

Dyche also felt Burnley's wall were told to retreat further than 10 yards for Kostas Fortounis' opening goal.

"The wall is a strange distance from the ball, I must say. I’ve seen that," he said.