Boss Laws’ pride

But proud Clarets chief Brian Laws was delighted with his side’s efforts against Premier League opposition, and in his squad proving its strength in depth.

Laws made six changes at Villa Park, but Burnley produced a performance that deserved a quarter-final slot, only to succumb to Stewart Downing’s extra time screamer.

And Laws looked ahead to tomorrow’s game at Loftus Road with head held high: “There are probably two very delighted managers – unfortunately they weren’t myself or Gerard Houllier.

“It will be QPR’s manager and Birmingham’s, because of the extra time and the tired legs. It’s a Wednesday evening and there’s less time to recover.

“Neither manager wanted that to go to extra time for sure, but great credit to all the players.

“There are mixed emotions in the dressing room because, as a player when you’re out there you want to win the game, and if you’re coming off the park after performing the way we did and not winning there is disappointment without question.

“Beyond that is the positivity and the reaction we’ve had since Saturday’s performance, which was a shock to the system, so the fact we’ve got back on the bike again and started performing as we have been all season is good.

“We showed again what we’re capable of. We didn’t get the rewards against Villa but keep that performance up and I’ll be a happier man at the end of the season for it.”

Laws rested Chris Eagles completely, while Andre Bikey, Chris Iwelumo and Brian Jensen were on the bench, and he added: “I made changes for the right reasons, three that were forced upon. For me that’s credit to the squad and that shows the strength of it.

“I wasn’t weakening the side, I didn’t believe, in any way shape or form. It was a strong side out there, on paper particularly.

“If we keep everyone fit and hungry and performing like that we’re going to win a lot more games than we’ll lose.”

Laws looked back on the game and hailed both keepers in a real ding-dong cup tie: “I’ve got to say football is cruel at times.

“Our performance was outstanding, I thought there was some terrific play and we’re very unfortunate not to get into the next round.

“The only way we got breached at the end was an outstanding strike, and it would have to be an outstanding strike to beat Lee Grant, who was in such good form, particularly early on in the game.

“A treble save in the first half kept us in it probably gave us a lift to go on to better things.

“But the hero of the night was probably Brad Friedel.”

“I was surprised Brad Friedel was playing. He was the one player I probably didn’t want to be in there because he always seems to have a good game against us.

“He earned his corn.”

He added: “It was a strong quality team and we stretched them to the limits.

“If Heskey’s coming on you know they’re worried. You don’t bring them on to run time down, you bring them on because you’re in a difficult situation.

“It wasn’t to be, but all I’ve got is praise.

“I can’t say anything negative about the players or about the team. The performance was outstanding.”