Jack Cork is backing Brian Laws

Cork glanced home Wade Elliott’s cross in the last minute against the Rams to briefly lift the Clarets back into the play-off places, before Norwich leapfrogged them with victory in the East Anglian derby on Sunday.

The three points, however, eased the pressure on Laws, with Derby chief Nigel Clough even saying: “I couldn’t believe when I arrived here they told me he was under pressure.

“If there’s anything good to come out of it, I’m delighted he got the win.”

Laws had come under fire from sections of the Burnley support after a run of one win in seven games, culminating in the 1-0 reverse at Coventry last Saturday, during which some fans had chanted “You don’t know what you’re doing”, after Cork was replaced, with Burnley chasing the match.

And Cork said: “I’m very pleased for the boss.

“I know it’s hard for managers at times, but at the end of the day it’s the players’ job to go out there and get results.

“He can only give us the tactics and things like that.

“If we’re underperforming, it’s our fault.

“I think whatever manager it is, especially the manager we have at the moment, I think it’s quite unfair the criticism he’s getting, because if you looked at it, we were only 10th.

“Another win and we were back in the play-offs, and I’m pretty sure everyone will be fine now.”

Cork hopes now to back up Saturday’s victory with a run of wins to cement Burnley’s place among the frontrunners at a crucial stage of the season.

He said: “Everyone goes through bad patches in a season and I think our bad patch should be over now.

“We have got some tough games coming up, but we’re going to be motivated for those tough games, and I know that if we’re all in the right state of mind, we can easily beat any team in this division.

“Hopefully we can take that performance into Saturday at Portsmouth and do well.

“We started the season proving a point to everyone that we had a good squad, but we dipped and everyone said they didn’t know whether we could do it.

“But now putting in results like that, especially in front of big audiences, it proves that we can do it.”

Cork, meanwhile, was pleased to net his second goal of the season, and third for the club – all with his head – having pledged to find the target more often.

He timed his run to perfection before glancing in Elliott’s pin-point centre, and he said: “My mum doesn’t really get to many games, but I saw her jumping around like a lunatic in the box when I scored!

“It was like the goal I scored at the end of last season here against Tottenham.

“I need to try to get one with my feet now. I’ve scored a couple with my head.”

It was the first time Burnley had won this season after conceding the first goal – although the third time they have come from behind to win.

Cork added: “A couple of times this season, we’ve been losing but we’ve shown the team spirit in the group and come back and won.

“It was a massive three points. I’m really pleased for everyone in there, the players and the staff, because we needed that win to get back up there.

“It’s been frustrating because we know we could have been getting better results than we have been.

“It’s been hard for everyone so it was good for us to get that little boost, especially on Sky in front of everyone, just to prove a point to say, ‘Look, we’re going to be up there and we play some good football’.”