We've got a little pocket of players we can rotate

His side are in the bottom three but after a win at Wolves on Saturday he had admitted before last night’s game that he would be happy enough with a point. They almost got it too and he felt his side had deserved to get something from the game.

“It was a kick in the teeth, but that’s what happens when you are at the bottom of the table,” Lawrence said after the game.

“Burnley conjured up one moment of quality. We had plenty of chances ourselves but the quality around goal wasn’t there.

“We started too slowly and gave away an unbelievable amount of ball in the first half, but the players’ commitment and work rate was as good as theirs.”

Steve Cotterill was happy with the result but pointed to the tiredness of the players given the recent run of games.

“We got there through sheer endeavour in the end,” he said. “I thought our energy levels looked like we'd had our sixth game in 18 days. When you get that run of games it catches up with you. We've had cup games, a testimonial - it just keeps going on and on for them and when we get towards the end of a month it catches up.

“Last month Gillingham and West Ham caught up with us but all credit to the boys, they got the opportunity that came their way but only because they stayed with it. In the end we deserved to get a rub of the green because I think that we have deserved more wins than we've got on the board.

“The win was important for the supporters because you're playing at home and you want to win for them, and important for the players because they mustn't lose belief in what they're doing at the moment and they're not. We had to grind out a result and we're pleased it's out of the way now.

“Anyone watching over a period of time will know how good our players have been and how hard they've worked and we were playing against one of the big sides in this division. Cardiff won't be down there, their players are too good and it won't be long before they start rising because the cream always rises to the top."

The Burnley boss was also able to make a substitution last night with more senior players available to him.

“We've got a little pocket of players we can rotate a little bit. In the middle of the park there's a lot of legs, lots of energy, lots of tackles, lots of second balls and lots of headers. I took Tony Grant off on Saturday and Micah finished the game so it was just a case of using their legs.

“It was something I already had in my head anyway that I would make that substitution tonight unless there was anything forced on us."