Gloss taken off goal – Easton

But the Scottish full back’s first goal for Burnley was over-shadowed by an abject second half performance against Leeds United which saw the Clarets surrender their third two-goal lead of the campaign.

The former Hamilton defender lashed the ball past Kasper Schmeichel from close range in the 29th minute after pouncing on Andre Bikey’s blocked header.

The 22-year-old last scored when he gave his former employer’s the lead in a 3-1 defeat against Rangers at New Douglas Park in October 2008.

Easton’s only other goal of his career came against Airdrie United in his first full season as a professional.

He said: “They are always few and far between for myself, so any one’s very special for me.

“But when you get the goal you’re not really thinking too much about yourself, it’s a collective thing for the team.

“It takes the shine off it if you don’t get three points.

“It’s really disappointing.

“When you score a goal to put you ahead in a game it’s always a bit more special, but as a team we came in at full-time really disappointed after what was a really good first half for us.

“It’s happened too many times this season and we really need to sort it out.”

He added: “You’d sacrifice your own goal if you could be guaranteed the three points, because that’s what we want.

“When Jay got the second one you start thinking about getting the three points and having your goal as part of that.

“Maybe it’s a bit of a consolation but we still come off disappointed to be beaten.”

Victory for the Clarets would have seen them climb to seventh in the table following defeats for QPR, Cardiff City, Norwich City and Derby County and stalemates for Swansea and Coventry.

Just five points would have separated Brian Laws’ side from second with a game in hand.

And Easton accepts that he and his team-mates have to accept responsibility for their failure.

“We’re on the pitch,” he said. “Any manager’s going to get the stick when you’re not getting a run of results or you’re not doing as well as you should.

“As a team the manager, the coaches, the players and the fans have all got one goal and that’s to get back into the Premier League.

It’s much easier said than done but it’s something we’re capable of doing.

“The gaps aren’t massive from us to even the top teams, but we want to get ourselves into the play-offs and establish ourselves there as the season goes on.

“But we’ll have to start picking up a lot more points to do that.”

He added: “It would have been beneficial for us if we’d won but as it stands we can’t really look at what might have been.

“We just need to keep going and take it game by game. We know the quality we’ve got in the dressing room.

“We’ve got one of the best squads in the division. We’ve got two players for every position.

“But it’s all well and good saying we’re good enough, we have to start doing it on the park now.”

The Clarets have now thrown away three two goal leads this season which included a 3-3 draw against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane and a 2-2 stalemate against Norwich City at Carrow Road.

But Easton still can’t put his finger on what the cause is: “After having such a good first half you expect to go out and do more of the same.

“Leeds put two up front and perhaps caused us a few problems that way but it was our own doing.

“After playing so well you expect to see out the match. It’s hard to pinpoint any single thing that went wrong for us.

“But it’s happened a couple of times this season so we’re going to have to look at it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“We need to learn from it. We’ll definitely go over it as a team and see where we went wrong.

“You can’t dwell on these mistakes, we have to be ready to bounce back.”

“To be honest he (Brian Laws) didn’t have to say too much because all the boys are disappointed and angry at themselves because we know it wasn’t good enough on our part,” Easton added.

“We need to see games out. A two-goal lead’s a good lead to have and we either need to push on and get an extra goal or see it out until the final whistle.

“He did have a few words at full-time, which is understandable.”