MANAGER Eddie Howe has urged his Burnley players not to lose sight of their Championship ambitions following their disappointing FA Cup exit at the hands of Norwich City.

The Clarets conceded twice in both halves, with only an excellent Jay Rodriguez header in reply, as they slipped to a 4-1 third round defeat at Carrow Road.

But having enjoyed a steady climb up the league table towards the end of 2011, Howe is hoping to continue that rise in 2012 – starting with Saturday’s trip to Middlesbrough now that the league is their sole focus.

“We have to use this game as a one-off. We didn’t really perform to our potential, but I think it’s important you look at the bigger picture and say it doesn’t affect our league form.

“We knew this was going to be a tough spell with three really tough (away) games. We’ve got one to come and we want to get a result,” said the Burnley boss, who felt his side were unfortunate to lose their last Championship game at Leeds, after being reduced to 10 men with the controversial dismissal of Kieran Trippier.

The Clarets missed having a natural right back replacement as their new permanent signing served his suspension, while experienced defender Michael Duff was also absent through injury.

“We didn’t look great defensively. I thought we looked a little shaky but they’re a good side and they get numbers in the centre of the pitch and they’ve also got the threat of Grant Holt aerially and (Steve) Morison when he came on,” said Howe.

“They’ve got good attacking options but we didn’t really deal with it very well.

“If you look at the bigger picture you see we’ve got a lot of work to do.

“I thought we missed Tripps badly, which we thought we might. That’s no discredit to anyone that came in but we didn’t have any real width in our play.

“David Edgar has come on leaps and bounds this season and I thought he did okay at right back. He used the ball pretty well, but I think we did miss Tripps.

“Hopefully we’ll learn from it and come back stronger.”

But as Howe looks to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window for the second half of the season, he insists he won’t make any knee-jerk reactions on the strength of Saturday.

“We’ve known the areas of the squad that we want to improve – we’ve known that for a long time,” he said.

“This game probably highlights things to us a little more but it doesn’t change what we think and we know what we need.

“It’s just about finding the right players at the right prices.”

Howe, who is hoping to tie Manchester City loanee Ben Mee up to a full-time deal, added: “Of late I think the back four’s looked really solid.

“It’s important not to over-react to one game.”