Those who believe in omens should look away now. The last time Burnley lost 2-1 at home to Portsmouth was in the ill-starred 1994/95 season.

Spookily enough, that game too featured a second-half penalty from the visitors.

It was also the defeat which rubber-stamped the Clarets’ relegation to the third tier of English football.

Saturday’s horror-show was not as fatal and the Clarets, theoretically at least, remain masters of their own destiny.

Yet the psychological damage inflicted will be far reaching and potentially devastating.

Even before kick-off, the signs weren’t good. Jack Cork and Chris Eagles were arguably Burnley’s best midfielders at Villa Park.

Yet both had to settle for a place on the bench. Andre Bikey, meanwhile, with his lethal habit of switching off at key moments, was allowed to retain his role as midfield rambler.

It was a selection that backfired. There were alarmingly huge gaps in central midfield, and Pompey’s Yeda and O’Hara needed no invitation to exploit them as both McDonald and Bikey went missing in action.

Yet the most bizarre aspect of the afternoon was Laws’ assertion that we deserved to win.

One desperately hopes this was chutzpah: because if the manager could not see the many problems on the pitch, we are in greater trouble than we imagined.