Barton more sinned against than sinner - Dyche

The incident was seen by the match officials at the time, and therefore no retrospective action is applicable, after Barton hurdled the Israeli, and landed on his leg in the second half at the Amex Stadium.

Barton is available to face Cardiff City tonight at Turf Moor, and Dyche said: "It’s the proper decision. I think Chris Hughton spoke well when he said there was contact, but there was no malice or intention there.

"I felt the lads's leg just rode around under Joey’s foot, and it was just a natural landing position. I thought there was nothing in it.

"There was another thing mentioned about an elbow when he was just jumping for the ball, if we start looking at them we’ll be here all day."

Barton has not had any disciplinary issues while a Burnley player, after a colourful past with Manchester City, Newcastle United and QPR, picking up eight booking, but steering well clear of controversy, and Dyche admitted: "Joey's been a credit to himself and Burnley Football Club, and conducts himself in a very good manner.

"With Joey on Saturday, in fairness, someone could have said 'hang on a minute, look at this season, he's been terrific, his football, the way he's conducted himself', but that doesn't make a story.

"He's not always been a saint, don't get me wrong, but that's sometimes the balance of your life later on when you are doing so well, people try to remind you of things that once happened."

He added: "Joey makes a story for any contact he gets with anyone in any given games, but I can assure you he’s had the rough end of the stick this season and kept himself very calm and delivered very good performances and that’s his intention going forward.

"He’s had a number of tough challenges on himself and dusted himself down and good on with it with no complaints, and nobody’s ever said a word about them.

"It’s a career of talking points he’s had so people are obviously talking about him. He’s used to it and we’re used to it.

"I think he gets a lot of coverage because he’s Joey Barton. It’s part of life, you get tagged with a lot of different things in your life and when people get a chance to bring it back round they will."

Teammate Ben Mee has also enjoyed working with Barton this season.

Barton recently hailed Mee the "find of the season" after moving inside to centre back, and Mee said: "It was really nice and I said that to him. It was really nice to hear that from someone like him. "He’s highly respected and he’s got a lot of opinions so it was nice to hear a good one about me!

“He’s been a massive influence. You can speak to him really easily about things and I’ve learnt a lot from him.

“He was (someone I looked up to). He was a graduate from the (Manchester City) academy as well, which I looked to be. I spoke to him at length one time – I don’t know if he remembers – at an awards thing. He was chatting to us. He’s a really good brain to pick.

“He’s great. It’s great playing alongside him and he brings a lot to the team. I’m sure all the lads will say the same about him. He’s been a pleasure to play with this season. He’s brought a lot of experience and determination."

While Barton can face the Bluebirds tonight, Dyche has no new injury worries: "We’re more or less there with regards the team. Lukas Jutkiewicz is the obvious one, he’s still long term.

"Barnesy got on on Saturday, so that was good news, we’re in good shape.

"I think it’s always good to have your players back no matter what time of the season it is.

"With Barnesy and Juke, those sort of injuries take time but they’re almost bang on timescales we were thinking so that’s good news."