Burnley manager Owen Coyle rued a series of defensive mistakes as the Clarets slumped to a 5-3 defeat at relegation-threatened West Ham.

It could have been even worse for Coyle's side as they trailed by five goals just after the hour mark and, despite hitting back with three late strikes of their own, always looked likely to slip to their sixth away defeat from seven games on their travels.

Coyle admitted after the eight-goal encounter: "We were the architects of our own downfall. We gifted some soft goals and made individual errors at the wrong time.

"I'm loathe to criticise officials, because I know how difficult the job is, but there were some big decisions which went against us, like on the second goal when Franco controlled the ball with his arm. Is the third a penalty? I don't know.

"On another day, maybe they'll go for us. But at 5-0, it would have been really easy to feel sorry for ourselves and hide.

"However, they showed tremendous bravery and courage to score some tremendous goals. It was another learning curve for us.

"We need to brush up on the individual mistakes, because you won't get away with it against the quality the Premier League holds.

"But we'll take our medicine, continue to work hard and look to get better because we have the players who can pick up points."