Clarets down to the dregs

AND then there were 18.

This most bitter of defeats must surely spell the end of Burnley’s hopes of somehow staying in the Premier League, leaving West Ham and Hull to scrap over the position just as important as fourth, 17th place.

After a run of one win in 21 matches, the Burnley manager Brian Laws feels that his team now have to win four of their final six matches to stay up.

While it is reasonable to continue to hope while it remains possible, there is a stench of resignation surrounding Turf Moor now because home matches against Portsmouth, Stoke, Wolves and now Blackburn have yielded just one point.

Blackburn fans trashed the toilets in the away end and 150 seats were ripped out and when you look at the task in hand, you can see why the only real defiance was in the coins and bottles that were thrown around.

Will three of the four wins required come from the home matches against top-four challengers Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham? Or will a team that has just one point in 16 matches on their travels all season get the victories needed from trips to Hull, Sunderland and Birmingham?

Now you can see why when a shirtless El-Hadji Diouf was waving at the Burnley supporters, it was not just a goodbye for this season, although Laws was right to feel aggrieved about the decision to award a penalty for Tyrone Mears’ challenge on the impressive Martin Olsson.

David Dunn converted to leave Burnley with a mountain to climb.

“Olsson took a dive, he’s conned the referee,” Laws said. “The referee’s not in a great position and he’s given the penalty which was very harsh.

“Everybody will write us off and say we’re down, maybe even our own supporters, but it’s still mathematically possible. We’re going to have to get three or maybe four wins but we won’t give up.”

Olsson was also frustrated after having a goal wrongfully chalked off for offside when he raced on to a pass from Dunn and shot past Brian Jensen.

Like Olsson, Dunn has had an impressive campaign and thumped the penalty past Jensen to score his eighth goal in just 16 Premier League starts for the season.

Once again, Burnley badly missed the dynamism of Irish midfielder Chris McCann, whose season has been interrupted by knee problems, and they could not make much use of their large amounts of possession.

Blackburn should have made the game safe but Olsson’s drive rebounded off the underside of the bar and on to the line but the whole of the ball did not cross before Phil Jones headed wide.

Franco Di Santo glanced a header wide from Michel Salgado’s cross and Burnley’s only real opportunity came when Danny Fox’s cross was flicked away by Chris Samba with Steven Fletcher about to pounce at the far post.

Even Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce felt that he was fortunate to be awarded the penalty.

“I think it’s a slightly harsh penalty when you look at it from the angles and slow it down, but when you look at it from Mike Dean’s position it definitely looks like a penalty,” Allardyce said. “There might only have been slight contact but it’s gone for us. Mike Dean said he wasn’t sure whether it was the goalkeeper or defender who tripped which is why he didn’t show a red card.”

MATCH RATING: ** – An absolute shocker in terms of quality but with all that was at stake, it was quite an occasion. Blackburn always had enough.

REFEREE: Mike Dean (Wirral) 6 – Infuriated the Burnley fans with his penalty decision and a number of other calls.