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"One or two things might still happen over the next few weeks, but we had to do what we had to do and that's win the game.
"The way that we played was really encouraging, really positive and now we just wait and see what happens. We had to make sure we are still in with a chance this time next week and we've done that, but for me the manner of the performance was very encouraging.
"The players will learn from the experience. We've had good times and bad times this year and if we get in the play-offs or we don't we'll learn from the experience and be better next year."
Speaking about McCormack, who has struggled to get a game because of their 4-3-3 system, but got a chance when they went 4-4-2 today, he added: "He's kept working hard in training, he's looked really sharp over the last few weeks and that's why we played him today. His movement we thought would cause Burnley problems and it did and the bonus was he got his goal as well."
It was a case of what might have been for Howe and Burnley and we must now resign ourselves to Championship football again next season and the manager has said there will be changes.
He said: "The lads have given everything and we've just come up a little bit short. Small margins always dictate and you can look back at some of the games and wonder what might have happened if you could have turned a couple into wins.
"Over the course of a season those things will cost you because we are just very inconsistent. That is our biggest problem. On our day we look like scoring goals at will and on another we are not sure where a goal is coming from and it's that inconsistency we haven't been able to resolve and that we need to look at."
Speaking about how it's been since he arrived, he added: "It's been difficult. The games come thick and fast during the middle of the season and perhaps we haven't been able to implement things we wanted to. We've now been given a chance to do that, which we are looking forward to.
"Players like Chris McCann, Martin Paterson and Charlie Austin will make a massive difference to us. There's a lot more to come from this team, but we have to make some tough calls. I don't think there is a massive overhaul needed, but we have to tweak things and we're prepared to do that.
"We need some fresh blood as well, so there will be tweaks and chances, but our focus has always been on the future because that's the best way to manage the team.
"We are going to have a busy summer trying to re-shape things and get us moving forward because we now need to make sure we are a better team and a better squad and hopefully look forward to challenging at the right end."
Looking back at today's game, Howe said: It was disappointing today. I felt in the first half we didn't get going. Leeds pressed us very well and got in our faces and made it very difficult for us to play our normal game and I thought we suffered because of that.
"You could see their game plan and credit to them and it is difficult to play against. We didn't adjust accordingly and took a bit of time to get into our stride, but saying that we probably created the best chance of the game in the first half and also should have had a penalty within that same move so small things can decide games.
"At the time I thought it [the penalty] was an absolute stone waller. There's absolutely no debate whatsoever and anywhere else on the pitch it's a free kick so why not in the box. The ball actually fell to Michael [Duff] in the end and it was a good save and that was probably our best chance of the game.
"We huffed and puffed and put a lot of balls in their box and had a lot of set plays that I felt we should have done better with. The number of balls we put in their box from set plays, the delivery was good but we never got a head on anything and it was just a frustrating day when we never played to our capabilities and we go home frustrated.
"We needed to be better. Despite their pressure we needed to pass the ball better and we didn't."