‘Testing time will make us stronger’ - Eddie Howe

And he believes they will come out of a tail spin of four successive defeats with a show of unity.

Burnley are 21st in the table, two points clear of the relegation zone - their lowest position in the Championship since 2003.

But Howe insists his side has not become a poor one overnight: “I think when you lose four games in a row confidence is going to take a little bit of a knock.

“When you concede so early like we did it did knock the lads a little bit, but we showed fantastic spirit at a really tough ground to come back.

“I thought the lads gave everything and you can see by the reaction at the end how frustrated they are and how much it’s hurting them at the moment.

“It’s the second game in a row where we’ve been really frustrated by a late goal against us.

“It’s not just us as coaches but the players are really hurting by the sequence we’re on but I think with attitude and spirit we showed we’ll come good.”

Burnley lost to an injury time goal for the second game in a row, and Howe grimaced: “This one feels worse than Saturday. I thought we’d done enough to get a point, which would have been a great point here.

“I thought we defended for long spells very, very well.

“A lot of crosses came into our box and the two centre halves, especially in the second half, I thought were excellent.

“But we conceded right at the end and it’s a tough one to take.

“I was really pleased with how we defended for long periods but once again we’ve conceded two goals and lost the game.”

And he added: “I believe in the players and I believe in the team. I believe we’ve got to be strong together.

“You can work hard on the training pitch and make sure you prepare right and go into the games as well prepared as you can be. That’s what we’re doing at the moment.

“The performances in the main have been okay. I think we’ve been in every game this season bar Middlesbrough.

“We could have had a lot more points to our name but we’re conceding late goals at the moment.”