FRUSTRATED Burnley manager Eddie Howe conceded it would be “incredibly difficult” for them to achieve a place in the play-offs after slumping to a third straight defeat.

The Clarets slipped down to 11th place in the Championship after losing 4-0 at Leicester City, while the gap to sixth stretched to seven points with only seven games left to play.

Burnley, with just one point from a possible 15 now, have hit a bad patch at the worst possible time and left Howe questioning his team selection.

“You look at it and you think ‘we obviously didn’t get it right’,” said the former Bournemouth boss.

“There’s no hiding the fact we’ve got to do better. I’ve got to do better. As manager I take responsibility, I’ve said that before.

“The buck stops with me and as a team, as individuals, everyone’s got to do better.

“I don’t cross the white line but you look at everything and analyse everything you do. I’ll certainly do that – that’s part of the process.

“We’re running out of games aren’t we? We keep saying the same thing every week.

“It’s going to be incredibly difficult for us (to finish in the play-offs) now I think.”

However, although the outlook is looking increasingly bleak for this season, Howe has yet not given up all hope of making the top six with teams above them still to play in the final seven games, starting tomorrow night at Nottingham Forest.

“We’ve only got a couple of days now to prepare for another game so it’s not long. But we need a response,” said the Burnley boss, who made four changes for the second game in a row.

“I would say we’d keep tweaking with it but we’ve obviously got to pick a team to try to get a win.

“We’re just struggling now to find that winning formula; that confidence I think that we had has gone.

“Confidence is such a fragile thing and it’s the basis upon all the performances you give.

“We’ve got to get the players believing in themselves again and playing as a team.”

He added: “Confidence can change very quickly. All we need is something to kick-start us again and we’ll be fine.

“We still have some very good players within this team, but it’s a case of finding the right balance and just getting the lads going again.

“We’ve lost our way slightly in the last few games.

“I think once we get one win we’ll be fine.”