Lee himself said it wasn't a foul

He said, “I don't think anyone can disagree that we deserved to win. We had 24 shots at goal, some of them high wide and glorious, but there were two that counted. Burnley defended well, John McGreal was excellent, and I warned my lads that it would be a hard game against stubborn opponents. Five weeks ago, our fans thought we were going to be relegated, so it's great to see this revival."

On the penalty he just about admitted that his side had got themselves a fortunate winner. “It looked soft,” he added, “The challenge looked minimal. It was perhaps less of a penalty than a handball incident in the first half. Maybe these things level out because we conceded a penalty like that against Leeds."

He concluded by speaking of the latest addition to his squad, former Claret Alan Lee, a player who seems to enjoy scoring goals against us. "He has not had a bad game, or even a bad half, since he joined us,” said Royle. “He is deceptively fast and when we find the right partner, and all the possibilities are injured at the moment, I'm sure we will see even more from him.

"He has come here after a difficult time at Cardiff and immediately settled in. You take a chance with what you know and what you see in the transfer market and it's nice when it comes off. But for a horrendous run of injuries, I think we would have been in or around the play-off places already."

The penalty decision dominated Steve Cotterill’s thoughts after the game. “The penalty that has won it was not a penalty in my opinion,” he claimed. “That decision has decided the game.”

The decision also saw Wayne Thomas sent off after apparently speaking to the referee and receiving a second yellow card. “I asked Wayne what he said and he swears that he never said anything,” Cotterill added. “I had a go at Thommo for his silly booking in the first half, but he says he said nothing to the referee and what can I do when he says that?

“It will be interesting to see when the report comes through what the second booking is for because Wayne was asking why he was given the second yellow card. Maybe the referee thought it was him who gave the penalty away.

“It was a soft penalty, but we made a mistake before it and if we had cleared the ball then it wouldn’t have been an issue and we would be talking about what a good point we picked up.

“We were comfortable, but it was just two bad goals. We had three against two on the touchline and we didn’t come out to close the ball and Currie dinked in a ball which was headable. Somehow it has dropped to one of their lads’ feet but we should be heading that.

“With the penalty, John McGreal let the ball roll through and they have misunderstood each other because Thommo thought he had time and he thinks he said ‘leave it’. Lee has nipped in and they’ve got a penalty out of it.

“Michael Duff said that Lee himself said, coming off the pitch, it wasn’t a foul on him and from where I was sat I didn’t think it was a penalty. If I see it on television and it is a penalty, I’ll say it is because I am honest.”

Commenting on goalscorer Michael Ricketts, he said, “We took the lead with a great finish from Michael Ricketts and it is such a pity that there was half a chance for him in the second half which he didn’t do as well with. But we are pleased with his contribution today. We’re just obviously disappointed not to get a result.”