The leakiest defence in the Premier League shipped four in 12 minutes in the 5-2 defeat, but Laws feels a video nasty has shocked the players out of their naivety.

Burnley have not kept a clean sheet in any competition since Hallow'een, and Laws said: "We had a 10-minute spell at Villa when we looked like novices.

"We went through the DVD, and I don't know what went through players' minds at particular moments.

"We can recreate it on the training ground, and a thousand times they would get it right, but it was unexplainable at times.

"We just got caught out and switched off, and that's been apparant since I've been here, it's been like that all season.

"There's a trigger that we need to switch off.

"We're working on being more aware of these situations, putting the points across as well as we can, but I don't expect to see that again.

"One mistake seems to trigger someone else, and it's a domino effect.
"We have to fix the first part and stop the trigger.

"It was naivety.

"I won't see that again, absolutely."

The shape and organisation which served the side well in the first half went out of the window, and Laws feels a gung-ho desire to right the wrongs is partly to blame: "The crazy part is we have this intensity to try and get a reply immediately.

"It's not about that, you have to be patient. In the Championship you could probably go and do that, and get away with it, but in the Premier League, you give them half a chance and they'll take it.

"We're obsessed with turning the score round as soon as possible.
"I'd been delighted with our shape in the first half, even when they equalised we were still patient, so we know we can do it, but we have to do it for the 90 minutes."

Burnley, while taking only one point on the road, are a formidable force at home, and with seven of their 12 remaining games at Turf Moor, home form could yet keep them up.

Laws said: "It's been done, and there's a great belief in the camp it will be done.

"However, we still have to concentrate heavily on our away games.
"We still have five games left and we really have to get some points, just to take the pressure off every game at home, because we're not going to win every game at home."

Burnley go into Saturday's game with Portsmouth without David Nugent, on loan from Pompey, but that could mean a first start since September for Martin Paterson, who netted his first Premier League goal at Villa: "Pato comes into the frame, and his goal will give him a huge boost.

"That was a plus, it didn't mean anything? Yeah it did, it meant a hell of a lot to him, and it gives him huge confidence to say he's got his first Premier League goal.

"And you know Pato, he scores in bulk, when he gets one, he gets two, three and four."