Laws keeps critics quiet

Brian Laws
12 April 2012

Brian Laws labelled the past week the most challenging of his managerial career after a 4-1 victory over Hull earned Burnley at least a stay of execution in their battle for Barclays Premier League survival.

Burnley looked like they would soon be following Portsmouth out of the top flight when Kevin Kilbane headed Hull into a third-minute lead. But Martin Paterson equalised after 35 minutes, Graham Alexander tucked in penalties after 64 and 70 minutes and Wade Elliott curled in a fourth as the Clarets claimed a first away win of the season and just a second in 14 Premier League matches since the appointment of Laws.

"It's been a very tough week, to say the least," said Laws. "As a manager I've been an easy target this week for criticism and hopefully that might just quieten them down for at least a few more days."

Laws also had to endure speculation his job was under threat due to dressing room unrest, exacerbated when out-of-favour midfielder Joey Gudjonsson hit out at the former Sheffield Wednesday boss.

"Externally it was very difficult, because the media were very much on our backs, particularly mine," said Laws. "I'm a cheap shot at the moment, very easy to get at because we were not winning games."

"The manner in which we lost the [Manchester City] game (6-1) was a difficult one because you ask questions about yourself.

"You get cheap shots in a newspaper from a player (Gudjonsson) which doesn't help the cause.

"It's disappointing to see a player put remarks in the paper who has not even been involved in the team, in the squad and isn't even going to be here next season. But the players have responded in the right manner and answered those questions."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in