Burnley manager Sean Dyche was left to rue events outside his control after struggling Southampton snatched a contentious late point.

Turf Moor bore witness to controversy rather than quality on an afternoon when the hosts looked to edge victory through Ashley Barnes’ second-half header.

However, Burnley’s winless run stretched to 12 matches in all competitions after substitute Manolo Gabbiadini rifled home to secure relegation-threatened Saints a 1-1 draw at the death.

Referee Bobby Madley’s accidental block on Ashley Westwood was key in the break that brought the visitors’ leveller – one of several decisions that irked manager Dyche.

“Well, another interesting afternoon, let’s say,” the Clarets boss said.

“I thought we’d done enough to win the game. Without being brilliant, I thought we were solid today.

“You can only control the controllables. There were things out of our control today that went against us.

“I feel for the fans today because they just want an even contest and they want to see it delivered and they want to see a win.

“The game is petering out to a nice win, really.

“Apart from Nick Pope making a fantastic save, I think we’ve delivered a good enough performance today to get a win.”

Dyche was aggrieved by Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy being unpunished for handling outside the box and felt his side should have got a penalty for a push on Barnes before his opener.

“Then the moment the referee unfortunately gets hit, then that puts them on the counter,” the Burnley manager continued.

“Then the ball is pulled back, Kevin Long is pulled by his shirt and he goes down – there’s not a lot in that, by the way, but it’s important to reference the whole league when everyone goes down and gets a free-kick for that normally, which we didn’t.

“Then Barnsey gets pulled down at the end by his shoulders right at the death, so it’s hard.

“We can’t control them moments, so you’re bound to be a bit aggrieved and you can see the fans were today.

“They were disappointed because everyone just wants to see their team given a chance to fight it out.

“But the performance I was pleased with. Like I said, solid.

“We’re still getting back to when we were really on top of our performances, but it was a solid performance certainly in a closeish game.”

Southampton counterpart Mauricio Pellegrino understood Dyche’s frustrations, but said such moments are “part of football” and that a draw was fair.

“I think the game was really tight form the beginning until the end,” the under-fire Saints boss said.

“I imagined this type of game from before because they are a team that don’t concede too much, defensively they are really well organised and they try to put their opponent under pressure with direct play and second ball. In this aspect they are maybe a little bit better than us.

“We were really focused mentally, we play with aggressiveness but I think we were a little bit nervous and didn’t play in the way I think we can do it.

“In the second half we start to do a little bit better, we created a couple of chances. but in the way we equalise I think it’s a fair result.”