BURNLEY will spend another week in the bottom three following defeat to crisis club Portsmouth, but defiant manager Brian Laws said: “It hasn’t ended our season.”

Although it was only the Clarets’ third loss this term, a run of only one win in 16 Premier League games has left them fighting to avoid an immediate return to the Championship.

Sloppy defending again cost them against Pompey. But Laws is already looking ahead to the points available in the next 11 games, and he believes his players have got the stomach for a battle that he feels will go right to the wire.

“At the end of the day you don’t cave in because you’ve made that mistake and that’s it, the season’s over.

"There are still a lot of games to play and a lot of points available,” he said.

“It hasn’t ended our season, it just means it’s going to make it harder for us.”

Defeat to Portsmouth, who are set to be deducted nine points after making Premier League history by going into administration, led to a chorus of boos at the final whistle.

But Laws admitted he didn’t blame the disgruntled fans for airing their views.

“Of course the supporters are disappointed because they’ve seen us shoot ourselves in the foot. You can’t get away from that, and they’re showing their disappointment in it,” he said.

“The crowd are fantastic here and they get right behind you and the team from start to finish.

“They’re just showing their disappointment because they know we were in a strong position and we’ve thrown it away.

“Without question we deserved something out of it, but you can’t give goals like that away, and certainly opportunities for Portsmouth.

“You’ve got to make like difficult for them.

“To hand it over on a plate was a bit disappointing to say the least.

“It’s devastating to lose a game, particularly when we’ve got a grasp on it at 1-1. We were staring more at three points than one, so to actually end the game with zero is very disappointing. The fans will go away disappointed because they’ve seen how it’s happened.

“We’ve made errors and they’ve been costly, and none more so than (Saturday).

“The last thing you want to do is make errors like that, particularly at home because our home form is going to be the key more than anything.

“It’s going to give us solid foundations to build on.”