Fabio Celestini at a loss to explain Burnley’s collapse at Cardiff

A furious Fabio Celestini admits he doesn’t have the answers to explain his Burnley side’s inexcusable collapse at Cardiff City.

The Clarets led 4-1 in the 65th minute, yet only 29 minutes later found themselves trailing 5-4 following an embarrassing capitulation.

Burnley, now five points adrift of safety, have now lost 23 points from winning positions this season.

Here’s everything Celestini had to say about his side’s collapse and why his side weren’t able to see out the win, as well as the referee’s controversial decision to award Cardiff a penalty and his explanation for his defensive double change:

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“I’m disappointed and angry, like all the people.

“We were winning 1-4 at 70 and that's football, but normally it can't happen in our situation.

“Because when we are 1-4, we must control the game until the end, no matter what happens.”

So what went wrong? Why weren’t your players able to control the last 30 minutes?

“That's what I must talk with them, see the video, because in life sometimes the emotion is very difficult to understand.

“Because I said in our situation, when we are winning 1-4 in the second half, you must win. Winning doesn't matter how, the way to win, you must win.

“But the reality is that we don't win, for that we must understand what happened.

“I can understand the fragility, when you are winning 1-0 in our situation, I understand, it's normal.

“But with 1-4, I'm waiting for something different, to control the game, to fight on the box, because in the end, the score on the box, the last goal is okay, we must accept it, it's an incredible goal, 5-4. But we have the 5-4 with [Aaron] Ramsey before. It's always something that happens.”

What was the thinking behind the Connor Roberts and Oliver Sonne change? To go more defensive?

“No, normally I'm never more defensive, but I don't have a winger right now. That was the problem.

“We know Banel has maybe only 65 minutes and we used Sonney the last two games, but Lucas [Pires] was not expected. This was not a defensive change.

“Sonney is the only one who can play in this position on the right.

“But in the end we are winning 1-4. When we are losing, I must put Connor and Sonney, maybe it's not the right way, but in the 1-4 it was not like: ‘okay, maybe we can give more consistency to the team’ and I can't expect we can concede four goals.”

What were your thoughts on Cardiff’s penalty?

“I never speak about the referee, because otherwise you are changing the focus. The focus must be on ourselves, not on the referee.

“They scored one goal in 10 against 11 for substitution, and we can search them under the excuse, but now many, many times it doesn't work.

“You said we lose 23 points from a winning position, so it's not just one game, it's not two games, not three games, not four games, not five games, it's not the referee every time.

“We must search the solution in ourselves. Not on the referee, not on the stadium, not on the pitch, not on the field, it's not like that. The solution is inside.”