BRAVE Ben Mee insists Burnley won’t give up on their play-off bid, despite a couple of setbacks.

Back-to-back away defeats for the first time since November denied the Clarets the chance to make ground up on the top six.

Friday night’s narrow loss at Reading, after going down 2-0 at Southampton six days earlier, has created a four-point gap behind Birmingham, who now occupy sixth place but have two games in hand over Eddie Howe’s men.

A win at the Madesjski would have moved the Clarets to within a point of Brian McDermott’s men, and Mee did his best to boost their cause by by throwing his head at the feet of Noel Hunt to block a first-half shot with his face, after Jason Roberts had given the Royals an 11th minute lead.

Although disappointed his efforts – described by England international Michael Owen on Twitter as the “bravest defending I have ever seen” – were to no avail in the end, Mee insists the Clarets camp feels there is still all to play for.

“There are still 14 games left,” he said.

“It would have been nice to close the gap – they’re a few points ahead of us now which isn’t good – but there are still plenty of games to play and if we can go on a run of games again like we have done we can be up there.

“We’re not giving up.

“The league’s so unpredictable and so tight we’ll see what happens towards the end of the season.

“We’re playing well and moving the ball, we’ve just been unfortunate.

“But at least there are positives we can take out of the game.”

He added: “I thought we made them look average.

“We played well. We hit the post, Chas had a great chance in the first few minutes of the second half.

“If we score then we’re flying. It was just one of those days.”

Of his defensive heroics, which drew acclaim from pundits and fellow professionals, Mee said: “It was a bit of a shock. I wasn’t expecting it to hit me in the face but you just put it there and see what happens.

“It could have been a turning point but in the end it wasn’t to be unfortunately.

“I thought we played well enough to go on and win the game.

“It’s just one of those things.”