BURNLEY were left with a sense of injustice after slipping to their fifth defeat of the season to Tottenham at Turf Moor.

Harry Kane was the hero for Spurs, scoring a hat-trick to put his side back above the Clarets and into the top six at the halfway stage of the campaign.

While Burnley were far from their best against a lively Tottenham side the visitors were handed an early advantage through a controversial penalty, which set the tone for the game and allowed them play on the break.

In the end there was no disputing the better team won and this setback can't mask what a dream season this is turning into for Burnley, but there will be a question of what if given how the visitors gained their early advantage.

Tottenham were fortunate to have Delli Alli and Kane available for their trip to Turf Moor. Both could easily have seen red for reckless tackles in the defeat to Manchester City a week ago, but having been booked for the offences they escaped further punishment from the FA.

That was in stark contrast to James Tarkowski, banned for three games for violent conduct after his clash with Brighton Glenn Murray wasn’t spotted by the officials.

Those decisions had sparked a feeling of anger amongst Clarets this week and it didn’t take long for that to come to the surface at Turf Moor.

The game wasn’t three minutes old when Alli thundered into a challenge with Charlie Taylor, arriving on the scene late. A booking was probably the right call, but the England man could easily have seen red.

The controversy had barely begun though and three minutes later Alli tumbled under a Kevin Long challenge in the area and Michael Oliver pointed to the spot. Alli was on his way down before Long’s thigh brushed against his leg and the decision to award a penalty was met with dismay by Sean Dyche in the technical area and the Burnley players on the scene.

After Alli had won the penalty it was Kane who scored it, sending Nick Pope the wrong way.

The injustice didn’t lead to an immediate response from the Clarets and it was the visitors looking likelier to add to their advantage, with Pope saving a low Son-Heung Min drive before Kane could only find the side-netting after pouncing on a loose ball.

A Burnley corner almost led to Spurs doubling their advantage as Christian Eriksen launched the counter, playing Alli into space. He nudged the ball forward to the marauding Moussa Sissoko but Pope stood tall to save with his legs before repeating the trick to deny Sissoko for a second time.

The Clarets had struggled to recover from the early setback and a loose clearance from Pope led to a Kane chance, but he fired over from 18 yards.

Burnley began to grow into the game as the first half wore on, with Steven Defour almost finding Chris Wood with a low cross only for Hugo Lloris to pounce on the loose ball, and Wood was forced off as the result of an injury picked up in his stretch to make contact with the cross.

Spurs were enjoying space on the break though and Eriksen should have done better with a shot from inside the box that he scuffed straight to Pope, before Son blazed over from 12 yards with only Pope to beat after Serge Aurier had broken clear and unselfishly laid the ball on a plate for the South Korean.

It had seemed a matter of time until Tottenham doubled their advantage and they did so with just over 20 minutes remaining. It came from a loose clearance from Ben Mee which was pounced on by Sissoko and he immediately released Kane, who made no mistake in slotting beyond Pope.

The striker had his hat-trick when he forced Johann Berg Gudmundsson off the ball, before Ben Davies found Alli, who slipped in the advancing Kane and he sent a left-footed shot across Pope and into the corner of the net.

Burnley were denied a consolation when Sam Vokes was penalised for a foul on Lloris as he out jumped the France goalkeeper to head home before Lloris then made a sprawling save to keep out a header from Barnes.