SEAN Dyche believes Burnley were once again on the wrong end of a refereeing decision as they fell to defeat at West Ham United.

The only goal of the game arrived in first half stoppage time when Mark Noble buried his penalty at the second attempt after Tom Heaton had initially made a save.

But Dyche felt the spot kick should never have been given, with his goalkeeper fouled in the build-up to the decision.

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"Very frustrated, frustrated we can't get a decision - a clear foul on Tom Heaton, I don't know how the ref didn't see it,” said the Clarets chief.

“(Michail) Antonio makes a back, doesn't even look at the ball, barges into him, it drops, and it is a penalty then, but it's very frustrating because every other keeper in the league would fall on their back, flailing around, and it's given.

"And because ours do it the proper way...it used to be applauded, and you used to play this game properly, now we're called naive.

"It's a weird thing, how can it be old-fashioned to play a game in the proper manner.

"I'm flummoxed at times. I see it every week in the Premier League, and the powers that be don't seem to want to change it.

"But if Tom Heaton goes rolling around the floor, I bet you any money it gets given as a foul.

"It shouldn't matter whether he does or not, if it's a foul, it's a foul.

"We've got to stick to what we believe in because I have to look at myself in the mirror as a manager and I'm trying to help these lads with their careers, and in my opinion, we attempt to do it the right way.

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“We don't always get it right but we try to attempt to. Unfortunately it's very clear if Tom falls on his back and rolls around, the referee gives it.

"When you hit a keeper these days, it's pretty much always a foul, minimal contact, but it wasn't tonight.

"We haven't had the right side of it so far, we might debates ones on another day which have gone our way, but we've had five game  changers go against us, and that's too many.”

The Burnley boss felt his side turned in a much improved performance after the break and saw a couple of chances come and go, with Sam Vokes missing the best of them.

"To be fair to Vokesy, their defender overhead kicks it, and his feet is 6ft high and hits him in the shoulder. If that's in the middle of the pitch, that's a foul, he flinches at the last second and it comes off the top of his head, but he should score,” said Dyche.

"Andre had one, a stud from putting it in, Keano from a well-worked set piece...I'm disappointed in the outcome, but not too disappointed in the performance.

"It's still tough going away in the Premier League, and second half was very strong I felt, with some real quality football, first half we just didn't show the same composure to play.

"That wasn't all that was missing, but that would have helped. The front players didn't keep the ball, the retention was poor, we didn't get into the positions we wanted to, we didn't open up the pitch, and second half the clarity of delivering a performance came flooding back, and I thought we were very good.”