BRIAN Laws has backed new signing Leon Cort to score the goals to assist Burnley's fight for Premier League survival.

Of the four players the Burnley boss had brought in before the weekend visit of leaders Chelsea, Cort was the only one to make his debut.

And although the Clarets missed out on a point through John Terry’s late winner, after Steven Fletcher had cancelled out Nicolas Anelka’s first-half goal, Laws was delighted with the 30-year-old defender’s start.

“Anybody who’s making his debut wants to have a good, solid performance and he couldn’t ask for a better one,” said the Burnley boss.

“He was very solid and made simple decisions and didn’t complicate his game.

“I’m sure as he settles in and gets a few games under his belt, we’ll see what Leon’s about. He can get us goals at the other end as well, which would help support our chances of staying in the division.”

And Cort is confident that a fight for survival is one that Burnley can win.

“I think we showed enough. If we can that win away from home we’ll have a chance,” he said.

“I think we showed a lot of confidence today.

“We conceded the first goal from our free kick and they caught us on the counter attack.

“That was poor, but we did a lot of good things I believe.

“There’s a gulf, especially with Chelsea and us, but there are a lot of teams down there and even though we’re in the bottom three it’s still very tight.

"If you can string a couple of wins together you can jump up a few places.

“We showed that we’re still fighting, and we’ll carry on doing that.

“I want to stay in this division like everyone else. We are all ready for the fight and we will roll our sleeves up ready to go.”

On a personal note Cort was pleased with his debut, and completing 90 minutes for the first time in the Premier League since May last year.

“I thought I did okay. I was getting a bit tired towards the end because I haven’t played in a long time,” said the 30-year-old.

“It was nice to get through it. It’s like riding a bike really, after a while you just get used to doing it again.”

And he added that it was easy to settle into a central defensive partnership with Clarke Carlisle.

“He’s a very experienced player and a very good talker,” he said.

“The lads made me welcome straight away and it was nice to get out there and play football again.”