Burnley boss Vincent Kompany was left to rue another refereeing decision after his relegation-battling side were held to a 1-1 draw by Wolves.
A day after Kompany said refereeing standards in the Premier League this season have “not been good enough”, the Belgian disputed Thomas Bramall’s decision to award Wolves the free-kick from which Rayan Ait-Nouri cancelled out Jacob Bruun Larsen’s opener deep into first-half stoppage time.
Ait-Nouri went down under a challenge from Dara O’Shea, but Kompany said there had been no contact between the two.
“Don’t get me on referees again!” Kompany said. “But if we have to, of course, it was an issue. If you do a pirouette and you fall on your own, absolutely no contact made, then it’s just not a foul, I think we can all agree on this.
“But then as well the referee is in the best position ever, a really good position, he sees it, I can see it from three times as far as he is and for some reason there’s a decision made out of nothing.
“Then I look at my own team, and how we defend the set-play, that’s always the case. But yes, it’s a repeat and it doesn’t make it any easier.”
The draw extended Burnley’s unbeaten run to four games, but the gap to safety grew to six points as Nottingham Forest beat Fulham 3-1.
Burnley were on top for much of the game but could not make their dominance pay. However, Kompany saw it as a point gained rather than two lost.
“We played in every sense how we were supposed to,” he said. “We were aggressive, we were on the front foot, we created chances. I feel at every level it was a good performance. I’ll take the point and we go again.
“I can only praise the players. They looked like a Premier League team today. It doesn’t buy us any points or get us any higher in the league. Perhaps we belong a little bit higher if it hadn’t been for so many bad decisions.
“Right now we’ve not earned the right to remain in the Premier League. All we need is a fighting chance, that’s all. It was never going to be an easy season, it’s not surprising we are where we are but what I can guarantee you is that until the very last moment we will keep fighting.”
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