SEAN Dyche questioned the officials after seeing a Chris Wood goal disallowed as Burnley slipped to defeat against Southampton at Turf Moor.

The Clarets boss was marking his 400th game in management but had little to celebrate as his side remained without a point this season after two Premier League defeats out of two.

Wood had a penalty appeal turned down in the first half, and then saw a goal ruled out for offside in the second half – a marginal call which could not be reviewed by VAR because the assistant flagged and play was whistled dead by Andre Marriner before the ball crossed the line.

It meant Danny Ings’ fifth-minute goal against his former club was the difference between the sides as the Saints ran out 1-0 winners.

“I’ve spoken to (fourth official) Michael Oliver and he said he shouldn’t have blown up but it’s not really that acceptable,” Dyche said.

“We’ve all been specifically told to make sure players play through every moment and Woody played through the moment and scored a goal.

“While that goes on the linesman’s flag goes up and the ref blows up. I haven’t seen it in detail, I think it was close.

“I don’t want to make the game about that but they are important moments, two decisions could have gone the other way.

“We didn’t find the big moments tonight which we often do. Neither did they really, (Nick) ‘Popey’ had hardly anything to do so those decisions from officials can count and they maybe did tonight.”

New signing Dale Stephens made an immediate debut with seven first-team players out, including James Tarkowski who continues to be linked with a move away.

“It’s not an ideal situation,” Dyche said. “That’s an obvious challenge for me as a manager and for the players. They were fully committed. First half was a little bit off but the second half was a good performance.

“The group need some support, first in-house support – we want to get players back fit, it’s a long list of very good players in the market – and secondly we’ve got to look to work in the market, if we can do that then we need to do that too but that’s not my decision.”