Brian Laws was left to rue a "crazy ten minutes" as the Clarets crashed to a 5-2 defeat at Champions League hopefuls Aston Villa.
Steven Fletcher's early goal gave Burnley hope of ending a seven-match losing streak away from Turf Moor as they scored for the first time on the road since November in an impressive first half.
But the Clarets hopes of stopping the rot and climbing out of the relegation zone were blown away as Villa levelled before the break and the struck four times in quick succession early in the second half.
Ashley Young claimed the equaliser via a deflection off Danny Fox and Stewart Downing then took the game away from the Clarets with a quick double blast in the 56th and 58th minutes.
The second goal also took a deflection off the luckless Fox before Emile Heskey and Gabriel Agbonlahor joined in the fun for the Carling Cup finalists.
Martin Paterson's injury-time goal provided some consolation in the shape of a first goal of the season for the Northern Ireland international.
Steven Fletcher puts Burnley ahead
"In the first half I thought we were excellent, the gameplan was spot on and we deserved to go one-up," said Laws.
"I thought we were very bright, organised and solid. The disappointing thing is we conceded a goal from a set play, although it was the second phase which has gone under the foot of about three people.
"But we didn't collapse, we re-grouped and got to the second half. We started the second half as we started the first. I thought we were excellent, but the second goal was a killer.
"It was a sloppy throw-in which allowed them to break down the sides, and we've said all along that if you allow good players like they've got, particularly in wide areas with pace, they're going to hurt you.
"That second goal was the turning point because we had a crazy 10-12 minutes in which we lost the game and it was in that period that all the damage was done.
"You can't rectify it after that period because we're too far out of the water.
"They brushed us aside in that 10-minute period because we allowed that.
"If I could take that 10-minute period away we could have got a result out of it, but we're looking at another defeat now."
Stewart Downing puts Villa in control
Laws is now looking to his side to bounce back against Portsmouth at Turf Moor next week.
But he remains adamant that the Clarets will break their duck away from home before the end of the season to aid the survival fight.
"It's a body blow. Nobody wants to lose games but we've got to move on," added the Burnley boss.
"We can't dwell on it and dismantle the team performance. We've got to keep giving the belief to the players because they need that belief. They need to know we're right behind them and we're going to support them all the way.
"They've worked so hard to be in the Premier League and we don't want to give it up.
"We will get over that hurdle and we will get a result before the end of the season away from home. I'm absolutely confident of that."
