STEVE Cotterill has urged his Burnley players to become more battle hardened after their winless run stretched to 19 games at the hands of rock-bottom Luton Town, breaking a club record.

The Clarets boss was frustrated that his side failed to capitalise on their first-half dominance over the Hatters.

Burnley are now on their longest winless sequence in a single season, following a run of 18 games in the 1979/80 campaign, and are just three places above the relegation zone after being leapfrogged by Hull City, who beat fellow strugglers Southend 4-0.

But Cotterill believes courage in the face of adversity will be key to a turnaround.

"I think that in times like this you don't only have to be brave to go and get your head on the ball when the boots are flying, I think you've got to be brave to have the ball and to give it to somebody else and be brave enough to have it back again," he said.

"We knocked on the door a little bit in the first half without knocking it down and in the second half we looked a little bit lacklustre and scared.

"We haven't really had a problem keeping them (goals) out.

"You'll go through a season and say you've conceded silly goals. We would be able put our hands up and say we've conceded silly goals this season. But we haven't conceded as many as a lot of teams. But scoring goals is always the most difficult."

He added: "Looking at the league table people would have thought today probably would have been the one, if you know what I mean.

"Playing Luton, I suppose, with them bringing in a new manager was a bit of Sod's Law. I don't think they came here to win the game, I think they came here to not get beat.

"They set up with 4-5-1 and I thought the striker was very isolated, which enabled us to pin them back in the first half. The second half wasn't so much like that. I think they probably sensed the place getting a bit anxious, then they can take it on. There's no pressure on them then and they came into the game more."

Cotterill was, however, pleased with the performances of loan players Graham Coughlan and Paul McVeigh on their debuts, and revealed his reasons for resting first team regulars including James O'Connor, who came off the bench in the second half, and Wade Elliott, who failed to make the squad of 16.

"You can only pick 16 can't you. Wade hasn't scored a lot of goals for us and I just think the last few games, as I've thought about a few others, they've maybe dipped a little bit," Cotterill said.

"Today we just went for some fresh faces, faces that maybe wouldn't have felt all the pressure that the other boys have been carrying.

"To leave James O'Connor out, I felt he dipped for two or three games. Everyone knows what I think of James, James knows what I think of him as well, but he dipped for a few games and we have the added advantage of sitting down after the game and analysing things a bit more and watching dvds and I didn't feel he'd had enough of an impact, certainly against Southend and certainly against Preston - coupled with him being on nine bookings. We've got a couple of other little tightropes there as well."

Of defender Coughlan and front man McVeigh, he added: "I thought they had decent debuts. When you bring players in I think towards the end of the game they can get a bit leggy but, all in all, I thought Coughlan and (Steven) Caldwell were solid back there.

"Paul McVeigh had a couple of chances I think he would feel he might have done better with. But other than that I thought they did okay.

"They are added to our squad for the end of the season, that's not to say they'll play every game but they're added to the squad."