BURNLEY'S players have fallen into a comfort zone according to manager Steve Cotterill.

And as the Clarets boss continued to pick through the bones of their shocking Carling Cup exit at the hands of League Two minnows Hartlepool United, he admitted his team lacked the consistency he desperately wanted.

He said: "We are not consistent enough at the moment. We don't consistently do anything right for 90 minutes and we don't consistently do anything wrong so that's why it's hard to pin it down.

"I said to the players it would be interesting, or it would be good, if you could pick a starting 11 at the moment who could stay there, that you know he's going to do this, he's going to do this and he's going to do this right through the whole 11.

"But we haven't got that.

"It's almost as if a couple of people drop into a comfort zone and don't replicate the performances, certainly, that we had in the first couple of games because that's happened and at the moment we need individual performances to be better for the team to be better.

"We know that. That's a sure factor and we've spoken about it."

After a blistering start to the season, with two wins and a draw in their first three matches, the Clarets have now surrendered their unbeaten start tamely against Wolves and lost any hope of a lucrative run in the League Cup with another poor performance - both in front of their home fans at Turf Moor.

And while on both occasions the team has been disappointing, Cotterill acknowledged it has been individual errors that have ultimately cost the Clarets.

He said: "Individuals in the team need to be better. I said at the start of the season that any individual talent's only going to be good if it's part of an 11 and if it's not part of an 11 then you're going to find yourself in trouble.

"And if more than one player does that it doesn't suit the team and we've got to be looking at that."

But Cotterill was fully aware of how different things could have been.

He added: "If we'd won on Saturday we could have been sitting at the top of the league and then we could have been a bit blas about the Carling Cup but that didn't happen.

"We're all bitterly disappointed but sometimes these things happen in football."