Burnley boss Vincent Kompany has told his players the latest VAR controversy to hurt their survival chances shows they must rely on themselves as they cannot expect favours from anyone else.
Kompany was fuming after Carlton Morris’s controversial stoppage-time equaliser cost them victory in Friday’s 1-1 draw with relegation rivals Luton.
Morris headed into an empty net in the second minute of time added on but only after Elijah Adebayo had blocked off Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford as he looked to gather Alfie Doughty’s cross.
Burnley had led since Zeki Amdouni’s 36th-minute strike and appeared on course for only their second home win of the season, one that would put them one point behind the Hatters and two behind 17th-placed Everton, who host Aston Villa on Sunday, but instead the result left them four points adrift of safety.
Kompany’s frustration was obvious in a post-match press conference as he described the situation as a “joke” and pointed to previous incidents at Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth where refereeing decisions have cost the Clarets.
But while Burnley will make their feelings known on the issue, Kompany said he and his players must focus on themselves.
“We’ll keep focusing on our performance and to do what we have to do to give ourselves a chance to stay up,” he said when asked if such decisions were going to cost Burnley come the end of the campaign.
“At this moment in time, I don’t want to draw these types of conclusions because it’s admitting defeat and I won’t do it. But it has to rally us if anything, rally us to be more united, more together and more willing to go the extra yard and not expect any favours from anyone.”
VAR controversies have come to the fore this season, and Kompany said there needed to be “better mechanisms” in place to deal with to the system.
“I love this sport and I want to fight for it,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be in the referee’s shoes nowadays, I have sympathy for them. I think there’s a lot of new elements now and scrutiny and it’s difficult for them to even come to a logical decision.
“Them missing something that everyone sees like this is probably the result of the general confusion around a lot of decisions. I have sympathy but I have also a lot of frustration right now.”
Luton boss Rob Edwards admitted he would have been upset to have been on the wrong end of the decision but he and his players could celebrate a point that was their seventh from the last four league games and which moved them level with Everton.
Although Burnley had the better chances in the game, it was Luton who had more of the ball and Edwards said it showed the progression they have made.
“What pleased me most was the performance,” he said. “We’d never have been able to come here and dominate a game like that. We were really good with the ball and I loved a lot of that…
“We have got a fighting chance, it’s a fact. We’re performing really well, we’re in good form. I don’t think anyone can deny that and we are getting points. In the last four games we’ve got points from three of them and we’ve performed well so of course we’ve got a fighting chance.”
