Burnley boss Sean Dyche has maintained his belief that the three-match punishment for defender James Tarkowski is excessive after the player accepted a charge of violent conduct.
Tarkowski elbowed Brighton's Glenn Murray in the 35th minute of their Premier League clash at the AMEX Stadium last week, leading to the award of a penalty which Murray smashed over the bar.
Despite accepting that Tarkowski was in the wrong, Dyche believes his indiscretion paled into insignificance when compared with incidents of diving and simulation for which the standard ban is one game less.
Dyche said: "To get a three-game ban is very disappointing overall, particularly in a game where at the other end of the pitch someone is diving on the floor and gets nothing.
"It must be pointed out that we don't condone the action. He does turn round and nudge him in his ribs, but as a grown man I think it's unlikely to need to fall to the floor and stay down for 30 seconds - but the game's changing and the honour in the game is changing as well."
Dyche revealed Tarkowski had previously suffered a hand injury in the same game, which subsequently required an operation in which a plate and five pins were inserted, and that it may have been a mitigating factor in his player's reaction.
"He had damaged it before, and just before the incident he (Murray) just happened to grab his hand - maybe it was by accident.
"When he (Tarkowski) explained it to me and I saw it on the video, I thought, fair play. I trust my players 100 per cent to tell me the truth. We put that forward but they still decided it was three games for violent conduct.
"In the greater scheme of things it's a very low-contact situation. To use the word 'violent' itself is bizarre in my opinion. But when you put it in the melting pot with the amount of simulation that doesn't get looked at, then we are very disappointed with that."
Source: PA-WIRE
