SAM Allardyce conceded that Michael Duff was unfortunate to be sent off as Burnley were beaten 1-0 at West Ham United.

Duff was dismissed midway through the first half for a professional foul after tripping Cheikhou Kouyate inside the box.

Clarets boss Sean Dyche had no complaints about the award of the penalty but was dismayed at the decision to show Duff a red card, with Jason Shackell and Scott Arfield covering.

Allardyce also thought Duff was unlucky to be sent off.

“It looked unfortunate, yes,” said the West Ham boss, formerly manager of Blackburn Rovers.

“The penalty is no doubt. Obviously converting that penalty for Mark Noble was very important on the basis that the last time we had one was the first game of the season and he missed it.

“It’s been obviously very important because we haven’t scored any more goals than that, we should have scored more but we didn’t and we’ve won 1-0.

“The team has set out to make sure that the most important thing to try to get a victory at the moment is a clean sheet because we are short of scoring goals.

“We had 27 attempts today and only scored one from a penalty, so it shows you we’ve been a bit lacklustre in front of goal.

“We should have won it by more.”