'Murder in the box': Blunt Thomas Frank makes Brentford penalty claim following defeat to Burnley

Vincent Kompany’s men claimed a much-needed three points with a 2-1 win against the Bees at Turf Moor.

Jacob Bruun Larsen gave them the lead from the penalty spot after Sergio Reguilon had been showed a straight red, before David Fofana scored a second-half second.

Kristoffer Ajer’s header teed up a nervy finish to the game, but Burnley managed to hold on for only their second home win of the season.

Despite the defeat, Frank was pleased with how his side performed with 10 men for over 80 minutes of the game.

“I’m very, very proud of the players,” he said.

“What an effort, what a mentality when we were basically playing the whole match - or actually more than a whole match with added time and everything - with 10 players.

“If you look back from the red card and the penalty, we played the rest of the game 1-1 and we were close to getting a point in the end. We were very, very close, which would have been unbelievable.

“I’m very proud of them.”

When asked for his thoughts on Reguilon’s early dismissal, Frank added: “Red card, penalty.”

Frank also had no complaints with the ‘goal’ Brentford had disallowed at the death when a cross beat Arijanet Muric and ended up in the Burnley net.

But referee Darren Bond immediately blew for a free-kick for an Ivan Toney foul on Muric.

“It’s a disallowed goal,” he bluntly replied.

“But you missed one big thing, there was a clear penalty [from Fofana] on Zanka within eight minutes of the second-half. How the ref and the VAR can’t see that, it’s incredible.

“That’s after eight minutes and it’s 1-0 Burnley, that would have changed the game. We have Ivan [on penalties], so it would have been 1-1.

“It’s not my view, it’s 100 per cent a clear penalty, especially when they speak about how you can’t hold or grapple players. It’s murder in the box.”