They have all made an impact

"I thought we started the game brightly, but sloppiness, laziness, whatever you want to call it, cost us," Jones said after the Clarets had taken all three points from a 2-0 win. "I can't remember my goalkeeper having anything to do in the first half apart from picking the ball out of the net and that's down to sloppy defending.

"In the second half we didn't create enough chances and the second goal was a poor one to give away. The frustrating thing is the amount of possession we've had and we are not able to turn that into goals, and it has been the same over the last ten games or so. But saying that, we are still making mistakes at the back, and they are bad mistakes. You've also got to take your chances and we didn't do that."

Jones wouldn't rule out achieving a play off place. He added: "We've come a long way in a short space of time. I think sometimes supporters and people around the club don't realise just how far we've come because it is a brand new team. I've said to the players that they have to keep going. The prize at the end of the season is a massive one, and if it doesn't happen this year then maybe next year it will."

A more relaxed Steve Cotterill had been checking the results before speaking after the win over Cardiff. "If we win our game in hand, we can go fourteenth in the table, which would be nice," he said.

"Today, we probably didn't have the ball much before we scored and if any goal was against the run of play, that was. Having said that, I was delighted with the strike, and the second goal was even better. It was a great goal and it was strange because we were debating whether we took off Wade Elliott, Steve Jones and Paul McVeigh because they had used so much energy the other day. We threatened them with ten minutes but to be fair they got their second win and they were much better as the game went on."

The win brought with it the fourth successive clean sheet, we haven't conceded a goal since Deepdale and that's 375 minutes. "That's pleasing," Cotterill said. "Wayne Thomas has been absolutely first class since we went back in there and I'm delighted for him. Michael Duff and Jon Harley have both been superb at full back. Steven Caldwell has been a rock since he came here and Brian Jensen has worked unbelievably hard to get back in the team.

"I'm please for the back five, but we mustn't overlook everyone else because they have all made an impact."

That led him on to Andy Gray who is still waiting for his first goal since returning to the side. "Andy will score sooner or later. Alex Ferguson said the other week that it's a mocking society, and I got mocked for saying one man made the team. Well it's no coincidence that in the last three or four games Andy has been back to normal.

"Everyone in the dressing room and all the supporters as well are gutted that he hasn't scored. When he does I hope they bring the house down because there is no lad who deserves a goal more than him at the moment."

Steve also spoke about the minute's silence for Brian Miller ahead of the game and paid tribute to the supporters of both sides. "That was an impeccable minute's silence," he said. "It was always going to be by our fans because they knew what Brian was all about, but to be fair Cardiff's supporters deserve an awful lot of credit today. They were first class and it needs to be recognised, so congratulations to both sets of fans."