SEAN Dyche felt Burnley gifted victory to Watford in their Premier League clash at Turf Moor.

The Clarets conceded twice early in the second half to allow the Hornets to take a 3-1 advantage which they held on to.

James Tarkowski had cancelled out Andre Gray's opener in the first half, but Dyche was unhappy with the Clarets' sloppy start to the second period.

"We gave the game to the opposition. They still had to capitalise on it, but we more or less gave it to them the first five minutes of the second half, after a very good first half, other than the first couple of minutes," he said.

"After that we were really dominant for periods of the game and played some good stuff - effective football, which I’m really into.

“We scored a goal, but didn’t capitalise, and went in very positively at half-time with the aspects of our play.

“We got into some great positions, but that killer moment, which we’re still trying to find as a group, wasn't there.

“I warned them at half-time, so I’m frustrated with that. I said to them they would try and come out of the blocks again, and we had to respond.

“You’ve got to go and get the game, rather than let it come to you, and we didn’t start with that intention.

“We concede a poor goal when we’re out of shape, which is unusual for us. They get a bit lucky, it hits Ben (Mee), a good block, and it lands to the lad, and he’s played a very good pass.

“Then the third is obviously a poor pass and they capitalise on it."

Troy Deeney had put Watford back in front before Will Hughes fired in a third. The midfielder had been booked for a rash tackle on Stephen Ward in the first half right in front of the dugouts and Dyche felt he should have been sent-off.

"The unfortunate thing is the lad who scores shouldn’t be on the pitch at that time, for a really poor challenge," he said.

"Our lads don’t go rolling around, and unfortunately in this case maybe you need to and have a hoo-haa, and they see it differently. It’s a really poor challenge.

“I don’t even know why he’s going for it, Wardy is off the pitch at the time, he’s not in control. I’m only going off the letter of the law, those sort of challenges used to happen every week when I was playing. But they don’t any more.

“I try and leave referees alone, they have a job to do, and it’s a tough one, but some are more obvious than others.

“I’m on top of it, four feet away, I know the difference between a reasonable tackle and a bad tackle, and that was a bad tackle.

“I don’t mind firm tackles, let’s say, there should be more of it. It’s taken away to a disastrous level because of all the cheating, so I’m one who’ll go ‘okay, that’s how it goes’.

“But that was a really poor challenge. He’s that out of control, Wardy is off the pitch, he’s gone from the playing surface, off the pitch, and hit him.

“Moments like that, you can’t have, that could have really hurt someone.

“I thought he should go, he didn’t, the referee didn’t seem interested in that, and then he scores."