OUTSPOKEN Clarets legend Leighton James has urged supporters to give manager Brian Laws their full backing – even if Burnley go down.

The former Sheffield Wednesday boss has been targeted by the boo-boys after engineering just one win in 12 Premier League games in charge.

But James has leapt to the 48-year-old’s defence, insisting the finger of blame for the Clarets’ relegation plight should only be pointed at one man: Owen Coyle.

Like many fans, the popular former winger is still hurt by Coyle’s January departure for rivals Bolton Wanderers, but more so because he does not believe the Scot did enough to give them a fighting chance to retain their top flight status before the campaign even began.

Under-fire Laws feels that from their remaining six games, starting with tonight’s visit of Manchester City (kick-off 5.30pm), they need at least three wins to survive; a seemingly impossible task given a four-point return from 36 during his tenure.

But James said problems were evident even before Coyle quit.

“Brian’s in an unenviable position of trying to raise the Titanic!” said the 57-year-old.

“I think the football club has been badly let down by Owen Coyle, long before he left.

“He had all last summer to look at what he had and what he possibly could get, but for all that Owen Coyle took us up, he didn’t do anything to strengthen the side to make sure that we stayed up and I’ve been fearing for them all season.

“The rot set in right at the start.

“Defensively we haven’t been good enough and we’ve given away amateurish goals all season.

“That’s been the root cause of our big problems.

“This was a team capable of beating Manchester United and Everton at the start of the season at home, but both missed penalties against us so I didn’t get carried away by the odd result. If they’d have gone in we’d have been worse off than we are now, while away from home we’ve been decimated by the opposition week in, week out.

“The away form tells a million stories about the mess Owen Coyle left Brian Laws in.”

He added: “The fans will turn, because it’s a results business.

“If you go to the cinema and watch a bad film, or go to a restaurant and have a bad meal, you’re going to complain about it.

“People spend their hard-earned money to be entertained, and if they aren’t being they are perfectly entitled to complain about it.

“But my message to them is to be patient. I’m not saying accept relegation, because it’s always a bitter pill.

“But if it comes to it, get behind Brian Laws and the chairman in the Championship next season and make sure a crowd of 15,000-17,000 every week takes the club back into the Premier League, because they will come back stronger.”

Laws was not the fans’ unanimous first choice to replace Coyle, after he left Sheffield Wednesday by mutual consent in December following a run of nine games without a win.

But while he may not ultimately be able to help Burnley avoid the drop, James believes Laws is the man to reinstate them in the Premier League, providing he is given the resources.

“I do believe in the inevitability of us going down he can get us back up again. But he has got to be given the opportunity to rebuild. He deserves that,” he said.

“You can’t expect a guy to come in halfway through a season and resurrect this situation. It doesn’t happen like that.

“There are possibly seven or right players - maybe even 10 or 12 - that don’t figure in his plans.

"But he hasn’t been able to get rid of them since he came in and has had to play them.

“There has to be a cull of some sort this summer and rebuild a positive, younger side with better players.

“I hope they will stick with Brian Laws and give him the chance to build his own side and give him the opportunity to get Burnley Football Club back into the Premier League, because I think there’s a good chance to go straight back up again.”