AFTER defeat on home soil, the assessment was damning, the season written off. But it requires the shortest of memories to give up all hope of Burnley’s survival.

On Carling Cup final weekend at Turf Moor, few expected the match to pan out the way it did.

“This was a must win game for us and we certainly did not do that,” bemoaned one Clarets fan on this website.

“Yet again we blew our chances. Arsenal next week! We are going to be made a laughing stock.

“I’m afraid to say it but I don’t think we have any realistic chance of the play-offs now.”

For those who weren’t already on the scent, the last line was the giveaway.

Those comments came not from this week, but from exactly 12 months ago.

Change the phrase ‘the play-offs’ for ‘safety’, and it sounds rather familiar.

It was Carling Cup final weekend this time last year when Burnley were beaten, nay, thumped, 4-2 at home by Sheffield Wednesday.

A Sheffield Wednesday side who had looked nothing special all season had somehow masterminded a double over the promotion-chasing Clarets, whose defence was so leaky that it was hard to envisage anything but an unhappy end to the season.

As is the case now, a week later they had the daunting task of a trip to the Emirates to take on Arsenal.

That time it was in the FA Cup and, although they were beaten convincingly 3-0 – the third goal of which Eduardo describes as the best of his career – the Clarets could never have been described as ‘a laughing stock’.

And, more crucially, the season seemed to turn out all right, didn’t it?

Burnley recovered from that Sheffield Wednesday setback – on the weekend they would have been in the Carling Cup final had it not been for Roman Pavlyuchenko - to claim victory in 10 of their last 15 games. They not only made the play-offs, but won them.

As with Sheffield Wednesday, Portsmouth – 2-1 victors at Turf Moor on Saturday – have appeared two strikers short of a picket for most of this season but have now completed the double over the Clarets.

At least it means Burnley won’t suffer if Pompey go out of business before the end of the season. Points to be expunged: zero, nada, nul.

Brian Laws, of course, was the manager of that Sheffield Wednesday side last year.

Now, he is in charge of Burnley and there is no prouder and more determined man.

Even as manager of the opposition 12 months ago, his love for the club with which he started his career remained obvious.

“I’ve got great admiration for Burnley,” he said then.

“It’s a great club. I spent a lot of time here and I’ve still got a lot of friends here, so I want them to do really well.”

Laws knows that effort alone will not keep Burnley in the Premier League but no stone will be left unturned in their bid for survival.

The Clarets have more than enough games left to get the points they need, with the help of a revival in form.

Things may look grim now, but history tells us that all is not lost.