LAST week's leaky Clarets defence may have had some drastic repair work done on it, but conceding two goals was still two too many for Stan Ternent on Saturday.

The Burnley boss was keen to build on Tuesday's pounding of Preston, but the Canaries were more like vultures as they swooped mercilessly on their prey when Burnley were at their most vulnerable.

However, encouragingly for Ternent, such an occasion was rare. Sandwiched in between the goals was enough evidence that Burnley's players believe they have plenty to play for this season.

Indeed, tomorrow night they can even have the prestige of denying Portsmouth the points that clinch their return to the Premiership.

Sheffield Wednesday had this honour on Saturday and Ternent's reaction when he was told of the Owls' mind-boggling win at Fratton Park was a mixture of surprise and renewed optimism.

He must have expected to be taking his side down to the south coast as welcome guests at a promotion celebration. They now have the incentive of being the gate crashers of a Pompey party.

Events at Carrow Road suggest this is possible. Gone are the ghosts of the previous week's horror show at home to Watford, scared away by the hard-earned derby victory over Preston on Tuesday.

Save for a fatal early lapse of concentration and some unconvincing refereeing decisions, Burnley looked more than capable of ruining the play-off ambitions of their hosts, who were just a penalty kick away from the Premiership last year.

Despite this, it must be remembered that facts have an annoying tendency to be true. The win over North End is still the Clarets' only one in 10 games and while Pompey lost their bottle on Saturday, they are top for a reason.

And if Burnley are to stand any chance of beating them they must take their opportunities, because, as shown on Saturday, against the top sides they don't come along too often.

Gareth Taylor should have buried a volley from Dean West's cross in the 38th minute to make it 1-1 and it would have been a deserved equaliser.

But the striker's shot flew over the bar, an incident symptomatic of the usual lethal cocktail of bad luck Burnley have been knocked out by in recent weeks - missed chances, a penalty appeal turned down, a player going off injured and, of course, a goalkeeping blunder.

The tone was set within the first minute when Nik Michopoulos skewed the ball out for a corner as he and Graham Branch couldn't decide who should deal with a harmless ball.

Although the Greek goalkeeper saved well from Malky MacKay's header off the resulting corner he couldn't do anything to stop the trusty Steen Nedergaard nodding in the next one.

Michopoulos was then left for dead by Zema Abbey but Dean West recovered to block his shot on the line.

Although this all happened inside the first five minutes there was to be no repeat of the defensive disasters that have so often plagued the Clarets this season, and for that they should be given credit.

Maybe they took some inspiration from Norwich's most famous sports reporter, Alan Partridge.

It wouldn't have come as a surprise to learn they had been reading his autobiography Bouncing Back on the plane journey in, given the way they responded to this adverse start.

Their cause would have been helped if City had been reduced to 10 men, but lucky Darren Kenton stayed on despite a late challenge that ended Lee Briscoe's involvement after 25 minutes.

Kenton was eventually booked for another crude lunge at Paul Weller but Ternent knew fortune was smiling on the defender when he got away with a blatant shove on Robbie Blake five minutes before the break.

"It wasn't just a clear cut penalty for me, it was a clear cut penalty for everyone that was there," said the Burnley boss. "It was just the two hands that pushed him."

Talking of refused penalties, Michopoulos was also breathing a huge sigh of relief when, after 52 minutes, he appeared to trip David Healy.

Once again, Steve Tomlin's hands remained behind his back and Norwich boss Nigel Worthington said: "I thought it was a penalty but Stan said straight away, 'that's one each'."

But any hopes Ternent had of declaring this as the score in goals were dashed in the 66th minute when Healy's low shot should have been held by Michopoulos, but he spilt it and Abbey gleefully whacked it into the open goal.

This killed the game from Burnley's point of view, especially as their best spell, the last half hour of the first half, was well behind them.

At this point, with Blake at his busy best, and hard workers like Branch and West winning welcome possession, the small travelling contingent must have felt the journey was worthwhile for this period alone.

But spells like this have to be longer and also have to contain more moments of penalty area mayhem to seriously trouble opponents.

More encouragement came in the second half in the willowy shape of Richard Chaplow, brought on for Gordon Armstrong nine minutes after the break.

The teenager looked classy and confident in possession during his first appearance in the senior side, really getting his teeth into the midfield, even if his tackle does lack a bit of bite.

With another sub from the youth side, Matty O'Neill, joining him on the pitch, Burnley can at least console themsleves that while the present is patchy, the future could be very fruitful.

NORWICH CITY 2 Scorers: Nedergaard 2, Abbey 66

BURNLEY 0

At Carrow Road Att: 20,026