Why Burnley boss Scott Parker was 'ecstatic' with his players despite disappointing Preston draw
Scott Parker was “absolutely ecstatic” with his Burnley team despite speaking of his disappointment at their failure to beat Preston North End.
The Clarets were held to their 11th goalless draw of the season during a feisty Lancashire derby at Deepdale.
The better chances came Burnley’s way, with Lyle Foster missing two-gilt edged opportunities either side of half-time.
Despite not picking up three points, Parker had no complaints with his side’s display.
“I’m absolutely ecstatic with the team. I thought our performance generally was top today,” he said.
“I’m really, really pleased with the game in terms of how we approached it.
“We spoke about it, this is a tough place to come. Fine margins have been decided in this stadium for many teams here. One goal here or there.
“They make it very difficult and you've got to stand up to a certain fight. We stood up to that.
“The facts are, the disappointment is we've not got a result and there's no denying that.
We're disappointed that we've not managed to win the game because we fully deserve to. We didn't put our chances away today and I think that's fair to say.”
On Foster’s glaring misses, Parker added: “Yes, one of them has probably got to go in and Lyle will probably understand that as well,” he said.
“Look, he's in great areas and he's been absolutely superb. I'm not going to [criticise], Lyle would be more disappointed than any of us.
“We didn't execute or he didn't execute in those moments and the game then turns out like it did.”
To make matters worse, Parker also felt his side were denied a clear penalty in the 89th minute when substitute Marcus Edwards went down in the box.
“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. Penalty, that's how I just see it.”