Mike Dean dumbfounded by VAR decision in Burnley's win vs Brentford

Former referee Mike Dean was stunned by a confusing VAR incident in the Premier League while working as a pundit on Soccer Saturday.

The retired man in the middle was on Sky Sports analysed Burnley's clash at Turf Moor against Brentford on Saturday.

The Clarets are facing the prospect of relegation back to the Championship, but Vincent Kompany's side boosted their chances of being in the conversation for staying up with a 2-1 victory over the Bees.

The London side were reduced to 10 men in the opening stages when Sergio Reguilon was sent off following a foul on Vitinho, with Jacob Bruun Larsen subsequently converting from the penalty spot.

After the break, Chelsea loanee David Fofana doubled Burnley's lead, and though Kristoffer Ajer's late header halved the deficit, the Clarets held on to secure a valuable three points.

Kompany's side are now eight points from safety with nine matches left to play when the top flight resumes after the international break.

Former referee Dean was in the Soccer Saturday studio as he watched events unfold at Turf Moor and was in no doubt that Reguilon's challenge on Vitinho merited a spot kick after Darren Bond went to the pitch side monitor to view the incident.

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He said: "He has kneed him in the back of the leg and there is a push as well. Paul Tierney is the VAR and he has sent Darren over.

"It will be an interesting decision really because if the penalty stands, he has made no attempt to play the ball so it could be a potential red card, too."

However, confusion then followed as nothing could be seen on the VAR monitor and Dean gave his verdict on what was unfolding, from his perspective.

He said: "It's plugged in but there's no pictures right now.

"It's not the fault of the refs or the VAR, it's actually the people running the system, so something technical went wrong somewhere."

However, the five-minute stoppage was due to the VAR analysing a potential offside in the build-up to the penalty decision, and the technology was in fact working fine, Sky Sports later confirmed.

The main thing is they got there in the end.

Topics: Mike Dean, Burnley, VAR, Brentford

John McDougall