Coyle fumes at Barnsley loss

Owen Coyle was gutted after seeing his side lose their fantastic unbeaten home record to a resolute Barnsley side:

He told the post match press conference his thoughts:

‘To go and analyse the game, we were certainly the better team without ever getting to the standards we have previously.’

‘I can take it when you are beaten by a better team. I thought Barnsley had a good shape and they have some good players. I didn’t think they were the better team in the game, but Simon will be delighted with the three points.

‘They came with a game plan to get enough men behind the ball and frustrate us and it worked. I think it went perfect for them and they scored early in the game. Having said that, we got back in the game and we should have kicked on from there. We never, and ended up chasing the game a second time, so it’s a real kick in the teeth.’

Barnsley started well taking advantage of some ever so sloppy Burnley play:

‘We had a poor start and lost a poor goal and I though we were a bit stop start for ten to fifteen minutes after that. Then we started to get a bit of momentum. We like to play at a high temp and it wasn’t helped by the referee deciding, in his wisdom, there was to be no multi-ball after ten minutes.

‘That’s a small aside, but we started to play, scored a very good goal and proceeded to miss a couple of gilt-edged chances that would have put us in front. I have no doubt we would have taken the game on from there. As it was, I still felt we were comfortable in the second half and we have lost the game from a poor second goal from our point of view.

‘The goal is a wicked deflection and I don’t actually recall Brian having another save to make in the second half. From then on, I thought we carried the fight, without having the same fluency of before. So it is very disappointing to lose the unbeaten home record that we’ve had for a couple of months.

‘The one thing we have learned from this league is that if you don’t get to the standards you set previously and switch off, or there’s a little bit of bad luck you can pay the price. That’s what happened today.’

Coyle was also angry at the referee after he apparently failed to spot to penalties. He said: ‘I do think we had two stonewall penalties. In the first half Wade Elliott has turned the lad inside the box and he’s had his legs completely taken away. Then, in the second half, Martin Paterson has been pushed over in the six yard box at 1-1.

‘Whether the referee is not in the right place to see it I don’t know, but from where I was standing, they were definite penalties.’