BURNLEY manager Brian Laws branded football “cruel” after their Carling Cup fourth round exit at Aston Villa last night.

The Clarets forced extra time at Villa Park, when Clarke Carlisle’s header cancelled out substitute Emile Heskey’s late opener.

But England winger Stewart Downing, who came off the bench soon after Heskey as Villa boss Gerard Houllier sensed an upset, clinched it with a fierce strike from distance.

The Premier League side were reduced to 10 men in the 19th minute of extra time, when Marc Albrighton was red carded for his push in the back on substitute Wade Elliott.

But the Clarets sensed it wasn’t going to be their night when they were denied a penalty when Eric Lichaj handled Tyrone Mears’ goalbound strike inside the box.

“I’ve got to say football is cruel at times. Tonight it was cruel for Burnley Football Club,” said Laws minutes after the final whistle brought an end to the 2008/09 semi-finalists’ Carling Cup challenge for this season.

“Our performance was outstanding, I thought there was some terrific play and we’re very unfortunate not to get into the next round.

“The only way we got breached at the end was an outstanding strike, and it would have to be an outstanding strike to beat Lee Grant, who was in such good form, particularly early on in the game.

“A treble save in the first half kept us in it probably gave us a lift to go on to better things.

“But the hero of the night was probably Brad Friedel.”

The former Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper and current Villa number one was a surprise inclusion in a changed Villa line-up, and thwarted Jay Rodriguez and Martin Paterson more than once, a Ross Wallace free kick and both Mears and Elliott in extra time.

“I was surprised Brad Friedel was playing. He was the one player I probably didn’t want to be in there because he always seems to have a good game against us.

“He earned his corn.”

He added: “It was a strong quality team and we stretched them to the limits.

“If Heskey’s coming on you know they’re worried. You don’t bring them on to run time down, you bring them on because you’re in a difficult situation.

“It wasn’t to be, but all I’ve got is praise.

“I can’t say anything negative about the players or about the team.

“The performance was outstanding and on any other given day we would have won that game.

“We’ve had a very good run at the competition and it showed that we were up for it again.

“But it’s ended and now we have to move on and hopefully put in a performance like that against QPR on Saturday.”