Burnley's Hannibal Mejbri (left) battles for possession with Stefan Teitur Thordarson
Burnley kept an 11th consecutive clean sheet in the Championship but missed the chance to go second as in-form Preston North End held on for a point in a typically frantic and feisty Lancashire derby at Deepdale.
The Clarets, who have now conceded only nine league goals in 33 games, had the clearer chances, with Lyle Foster missing two excellent opportunities either side of the interval.
A Preston side unbeaten in nine home league games had to defend for much of the second half, and with Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom watching from the stands because of a touchline ban they did create a few decent openings, notably through Brad Potts who went close with strikes in each half.
Both sides piled forward in search of a late winner in an increasingly fractious match which was delayed just before the hour mark when Hannibal Mejbri reacted furiously to something that appeared to be said by Preston striker Milutin Osmajic.
An irate Hannibal approached boss Scott Parker, with referee Andrew Kitchen also involved in lengthy discussions after the incident, and later accused Osmajic of racially abusing him, a claim the Preston player "strongly refuted".
The incident marred an entertaining game that somehow only had three attempts on target throughout.
And an already frustrated Parker was riled further when Burnley appeals for a late penalty were waved away following Lewis Gibson's lunging challenge on substitute Marcus Edwards.
While Burnley's defensive record is peerless, having not conceded a goal in more than 1,000 minutes of league football, they have now had 12 goalless draws and once again lacked a ruthless streak in front of goal.
Jaidon Anthony was a constant menace for the visitors, and scuffed an early chance just wide while Connor Roberts also went close.
But the best chance of the game came in first-half injury time.
Some great build-up on the right from Hannibal and a sumptuous backheel by Zian Flemming teed up an unmarked Foster, who skied the ball over from 12 yards out.
Foster them missed another chance after the interval, this time he was unlucky, his shot grazing the post after some nifty footwork following a scrappy passage of play.
Preston, whose run of three defeats in 17 Championship matches has rekindled hopes of a play-off push, could have nicked a goal through Potts - the forward going particularly close after cutting inside and curling an effort narrowly wide in the second half.
Breaching Burnley's backline
• Kwadwo Baah scored the last league goal against the Clarets 56 days ago on 21 December 2024, Watford's only goal in a 2-1 defeat at Turf Moor
• Burnley have now kept 11 league clean sheets in a row and 24 in total
• Scott Parker's side have conceded nine goals in 33 Championship games, and no team has scored more than a single goal against them during that run
• Burnley have only lost two league games all season, both away from home and both by 1-0 margins. The last loss was against Millwall on 4 November with Sunderland the only other side to take maximum points against them
• With 13 league games to play, Burnley are only one clean sheet off matching the Championship record of 25 in a season, set by QPR in the 2010-11 campaign
• The Clarets are the first team in the history of the second tier to go 11 consecutive league games without conceding a goal
Burnley boss Scott Parker said:
"Something inappropriate was said to Hannibal which he reported.
"You could clearly see he was very distressed and in that moment we tried to get some context into what exactly had happened because he was very emotional.
"He explained to me what was said and at that moment we just wanted to work out how he was and where he was in his head space. It will go down to due process now."
[On Marcus Edwards's penalty claims] "It's a penalty for me and I don't think I'm being biased in my understanding of it. Marcus Edwards has touched the ball first and then he's touched it on to the player who's slid on the ground on to that player.
"The referee said to me that the defender got the ball. He didn't get the ball. If the defender's running with the ball and I want to tackle him, I have to get contact with the ball first."
[On the game] "Preston make it very difficult and you've got to stand up to a certain fight. The facts are that we didn't get the result and we're disappointed that we didn't win the game because we fully deserved to, but we didn't put our chances away today."
Preston boss Paul Heckingbottom said:
"It looks like there's some allegation that Osmajic has said something.
"At the moment, it's 'he said, she said'. It looked like the referee handled it well in terms of the procedures and what's meant to happen. I don't know what the cause of it was but I think the referee handled it well."
[On Burnley's penalty claims] "It's exactly what I thought. Lewis [Gibson] got something on the ball because I saw the ball jump straight away."
[On the game] "I enjoyed it, as much as I can when I'm not on the sidelines. There was an intensity to it that represented top-end Championship play because that's what Burnley bring and that's us.
"That's two games we've had against them. The margins are so fine and as we've shown against all the teams at the top, if that's our level then we'd be up there with them.
"It's a good indication that we're more than capable of competing in this division."
