Sean Dyche gives honest verdict on Everton disallowed goal after controversial VAR decision

Sean Dyche admitted he was surprised that Everton were denied a second goal in their defeat of Brentford.

The Toffees battled to a gutsy 1-0 victory at Goodison Park to move out of the Premier League relegation zone - and up to 15th.

Dwight McNeil’s stinging shot after just 35 seconds proved enough for the home side. But Everton should have been further clear in the first half as Amadou Onana and Alex Iwobi both missed opportunities.

Then in the 42nd minute, Demarai Gray bundled home from close range as he thought he’d doubled the Blues’ lead. However, following a VAR review, the forward was adjudged to have handled the ball and the goal was disallowed.

Dyche felt that it was harsh on Everton and that Gray couldn’t have done much else in the position. The Goodison boss said: “Surprised purely because of the short distance. I understand the idea of hands not being in the right position and stuff when they’re given but it looks to me that he’s just flinching. He’s not pushed his hand towards the ball. I thought it come off his pec, to be honest

“You would like them to go for you. If it went against you, you’d be disappointed, if it went for you then you’d be delighted. I’m a fan of VAR and some of the decisions are difficult. I just thought the distance side of it, it comes at him so quickly, I don’t know what he’s meant to do. It looks to me that he’s just flinching rather than hand to ball and making it go towards the goal. It went against us, it would have been pleasing to go with us.

“Let’s have it right, we had other opportunities that we’ve got to take responsibility for. I say to the players they have the freedom to miss and they did but, equally, you’ve got to have the moment of clarity to be able to score. We had two or three chances in the first half to really secure the game.”

Brentford put Everton under intense pressure in the second period. But the Blues displayed resolve and steel to hold on to all three points, with Jordan Pickford making a fine save and McNeil clearing off the line.

On the win, Dyche said: “Satisfying today for different reasons. The first half, I thought we were very good and you could argue we should have gone in further in front with the chances we created.

“Second half, fair play to them - they’re 12 unbeaten in the Premier League, I think they’ve had six wins as well and they’re a good outfit. They came back into it. Good play from them, effective play. The only thing I would say is it gets nervy, we gave them too many simple turnovers to give them a chance to keep coming at us rather than dealing with the ball better ourselves.

“But, that being said, you’ve got to find ways. It’s very difficult in the Premier League to dominate for 95 minutes and you expect teams to have spells. They had a very strong half but the resilience and shape - they’re growing all the time - doing the hard yards and add in a moment of nice goalkeeping, you come away with a nice 1-0 win.”