The players went out there with purpose

An unbeaten run of five games and three successive clean sheets at home came to an end with those early second half goals from John Guidetti and Andre Bikey and it left Robins an unhappy man. He said after the 3-0 defeat at Turf Moor earlier in the season: That is not good enough, and I have asked the players if they are frightened of playing away and only want to play at home," and it was the same today.

"That is not something we have experienced here too often," he said after Burnley completed the double over his side. "We were OK in the first half but we were nowhere near the levels we have been at.

"In the second half we just did not turn up and got exactly what we deserved. I have asked the players just what they are frightened of when we are up there and chasing in the league.

"To be fair it was poor for the whole 90 minutes. We have got nowhere near the levels we have done and were miles off that in the second half. There is no excuse. It does happen every now and again but there are no excuses.

"We have to aim high as a club. We know our position and where we are in the company we keep but we want to do better than that. We have to believe we can do that and today we didn't. We got what we deserved."

Who could deny our manager Brian Laws his smile tonight. Under pressure from the fans at 1-0 down at half time he saw his side come back to win and in doing so record only our second league win on the road since he became manager.

"It's been a long wait for that win, particularly here," Laws said. "It was so important to get that away win though after drawing so many. There have been a lot of good performances away from home but we haven't got the right result. Today, we married them up and I'm delighted for the players."

Laws continued: "We travelled over here and trained on Christmas night and they were bubbly then. I could see there was a confidence about them, and all credit to them for carrying it through. The players went out there with purpose and we were very unfortunate to go a goal down when we were the better side in the first half.

"In the end, I thought we thoroughly deserved the win with a very disciplined and composed performance."

Laws gave young loan striker John Guidetti his first start in Burnley colours, and indeed his first start in English football, in place of Chris Iwelumo. "It was a big call to leave out the leading goalscorer but sometimes you have to make decisions for the right reasons," Laws admitted.

"That was probably the strongest bench I have had this season, so that put a little bit more pressure on. But the players were outstanding and we have been delighted with John and his contribution.

"Since he has been with us he's enjoyed it and we would like to make that a bit longer, but that's down to ongoing discussions between us and Manchester City."