Speaking after the 6-3 win, he said: "We do tend to make things very hard for ourselves at times because at 3-1 up we were absolutely cruising. It had been a poor first half, but we were much better in the second and had done the job. Suddenly we hit the self destruct button.
"The pleasing thing is that once it got back to 3-3 we responded again and saw out extra time really comfortably in the end, but we really do have to learn from our defensive mistakes."
Howe was more pleased with our performance at the other end of the pitch. "On the attacking front I thought we looked good and Jay will obviously take the plaudits for his four goals, but it was a fantastic strike from Charlie and a great strike from Ross," he said.
"Some of the quality of the goals we scored was really, really pleasing and to score six in any game can only do your confidence some good, but we are aware that there are one or two things to look at from this game.
"Against Watford I thought we were a little unfortunate to concede two, but today we were the masters of our own downfall with some poor defensive play. It's an area we need to look at and we are looking at it. We've worked hard on the training ground but we obviously need to work harder."
Howe continued: "We are playing quite an open style of football, especially at home and I feel we will get the rewards. It's not going to be an overnight fix though. We've conceded a lot of goals in the last two years and you are not going to suddenly change that.
"We need to change the mentality by working hard and I feel we will get there, but it may take a little bit more time.
"I want to produce a footballing team that Burnley can be proud of and has its own identity and again that will take time, but there are some real positive signs."