GRAHAM Alexander believes Burnley’s players can take the positives from their West Ham defeat into Saturday’s long trip to Portsmouth and finally claim a first away win.

The veteran midfielder, who played at Upton Park despite suffering the effects of a virus, admits the 5-3 loss at Upton Park was hard to take but says there were plusses, especially as the Clarets out-scored the Hammers in a bizarre second half.

He said: “We have come back from bigger things than this and we will believe next week we can get three points.

“The attitude we’ve got is that we can do better next week and still climb the table.

“We have got to take confidence from the way we reacted after half-time.

"The manager, Sandy (Stewart) and Steve (Davis) asked us to win the second half, which we did but it was a game we were looking to win and defensively as a team we let ourselves down.

“We can look at the fact we kept going right until the 95th minute but we can’t afford to give teams so many goals’ start, no matter what division you are in, and especially the Premier League.”