Pundit weighs in on Burnley's late penalty appeal during feisty derby against Preston North End

The Clarets were left incensed when, in the 89th minute, substitute Marcus Edwards appeared to be brought down in the box by defender Lewis Gibson.

Referee Andrew Kitchen, however, pointed straight for a corner, indicating Gibson made contact with the ball.

While Burnley boss Scott Parker accepted Gibson did get a touch, he argued Edwards had got to the ball first before being “wiped out”.

During the Sky Sports coverage of Saturday’s game, it was put to Grayson by the presenter that Gibson makes a “slightly misjudged but well-timed challenge”.

In response, the former Preston boss said: “I think you analyse it really well there.

“At first view of it you’re thinking ‘oh, that’s a penalty’, but you look at it now and the defender stands up and then he goes to ground. He loses his footing a little bit and he’s really fortunate the force he goes in with he actually gets the ball first and it then ricochets away for a corner.

“You saw the protest go up straight away from the Burnley players, but I think the referee got the right decision there.”

Parker, who was booked late on following his demonstrations, had no doubt in his mind that his side ought to have been awarded a late spot kick.

“It was absolutely a penalty for me,” he said.

“I don’t think I’m being biased in my understanding of it. Marcus has said he's touched the ball first and then he's touched it onto the player who's slid on the ground onto the player.

“The ref has said to me that the defender got the ball. He didn't get the ball. A tackle is if the defender's running with the ball and I want to tackle him, I have to get contact with the ball first. If I touch the ball first, then I get that's a good tackle.

“But in this case, Marcus has just touched it and he's hit the other player and then wiped him out. It’s a penalty, that's how I just see it.”