Sam Vokes pounces late as buoyant Burnley beat Leicester City

Leicester City’s wait for a first away win of the season goes on, and as if conceding the only goal of the game three minutes from the end was not bad enough the visitors were annoyed by the manner of Sam Vokes’s winner, after the Burnley substitute appeared to control the ball with his hand before smashing it into the roof of the net.

The Premier League’s defending champions could have few other complaints. They are simply not producing enough going forward to hurt opponents as they did so effectively last season and Burnley were rarely in danger of being caught on the counter.

Hanging on for a goalless draw is always dangerous, especially as Burnley had created more than enough chances to win here, though Leicester must have thought they had a point after Andre Gray and Vokes both missed decent chances in the closing minutes.

The Clarets are now eight points ahead of Leicester in the table, which is surely a safe enough place to be, and in addition to a controversial three points the club were able to announce the deadline-day signings of Robbie Brady and Ashley Westwood. Leicester are just two points above the drop zone and in trouble, vulnerable to any sort of improvement by Swansea or Crystal Palace.

“We can say it was handball, but the referee did not see it and the referee is always right,” Claudio Ranieri said diplomatically. “Burnley won, well done to them. We battled, but our final ball was maybe not good enough. We still have work to do.”

Leicester began the match as if they meant business, with Marc Albrighton making inroads down the left wing, though Burnley proved effective at closing down his crosses and gradually the home forwards began to feature in the game. Ashley Barnes sent the first shot of the evening just wide from a flick by Gray, then George Boyd saw an attempt blocked by Robert Huth.

By the mid-point of the first half Burnley were getting on top, with Leicester pinned back in their own half and becoming increasingly hopeful in their attempts to hit the isolated Jamie Vardy with long balls forward.

The Turf Moor crowd were incensed a few minutes before the interval when Michael Keane appeared to be impeded by Danny Drinkwater as he rose to meet Jeff Hendrick’s cross. The referee, Mike Dean, waved away appeals for a penalty and was similarly unimpressed when Danny Simpson and Barnes came together the next time the ball came into the area.

All Burnley had to show for their first‑half dominance were a couple of well-struck shots from Joey Barton that flew too high, and they could have been punished on the stroke of the interval but for some equally poor finishing from the visitors. A chance to put a free-kick into the Burnley penalty area right at the end of the half offered a welcome respite for a side finding it hard to cross the halfway line, but though Wes Morgan rose unchallenged to Albrighton’s cross he put his header over the bar.

Burnley still had to be careful. In a rare reprise of what used to happen regularly last season Riyad Mahrez produced a second-half run and a dipping shot that Tom Heaton could not hold at the first attempt, but in a cruel example of what hardly ever happened last season Vardy was not on the scene quite quickly enough to take advantage.

Gray, Michael Keane and Hendrick all saw shots blocked in quick succession as Burnley attempted to cash in on a couple of corners and a spell of pressure midway through the second half, before the dangerous Gray broke into the box and stayed on his feet despite Huth’s attempts to wrestle him to the floor.

Gray’s eventual shot was blocked by Morgan for a corner, from which Ben Mee missed the target with a free header from the six-yard line, yet they might have had a penalty had their player gone to ground instead of shrugging off an illegal challenge.

It was a similar situation to the one involving Raheem Sterling against Tottenham Hotspur at the Etihad Stadium recently. If players are to be encouraged to stay on their feet wherever possible and not exaggerate every contact at the earliest opportunity, it would help if officials could spot obvious fouls without waiting for histrionic assistance.

Yet what comes around goes around, and though Vokes’s goal should have been disallowed following Scott Arfield’s corner, at least Dean and his assistants managed to aggrieve both parties.

That will be little comfort to Leicester should their survival come down to a single‑point margin at the end of the season, but as far as Sean Dyche is concerned luck does even itself out. “We’ve had a few decisions go against us this season and I think we deserved the win,” the Burnley manager said. “We kept knocking on the door and in the end we got our reward.”