Opinion: Burnley's next steps are clear after pushing Tottenham all the way in the FA Cup

Might it be too late? Perhaps. And will they earn enough of them to stay in the Premier League? Who knows. But there can be no doubt Burnley are on the right track.

For a good two or three months now Vincent Kompany’s men have proven they can compete at this level.

In fact, the last time they faced Spurs – where they were thrashed 5-2 at Turf Moor back in September – they looked badly out of place.

Now, while the results have improved ever so slightly, the performances show they belong here and are more than capable of pushing the best the country has to offer on a regular basis.

The next step

As Kompany rightly points out, now is a crucial time for his side. This marks a crucial crossroads moment in their development.

They must find a way to take that final step, the biggest step of all, and turn improved performances into consistent results.

To do that, it’s pretty clear what they have to do. They have to be more clinical in front of goal to find themselves on the right side of those fine margins, otherwise they’ll continue to lose by the odd goal.

But given the progress Burnley have made since the beginning of the season, where it’s fair to say they were well off the pace, a victory against one of the so-called bigger sides is definitely on the cards.

Carry on this current trajectory and the Clarets have got a positive result in them, no doubt. But what they need now is a run of them, not an isolated victory here or there.

While this was a cup tie and a momentary break from the fight for survival, there was still a sense of deja vu come full time. Performance? Good. Result? Bad.

The least Burnley deserved from this was a replay, but they could easily have snatched it. In fact, the game’s clearest opportunities fell their way.

Did Tottenham have chances? Of course they did. They also enjoyed sustained spells of territory and possession, as you would expect.

But by and large, Burnley managed to frustrate Ange Postecoglu’s side and keep them at arm’s length. The sense of anxiety and impatience among the home crowd as the game wore on was proof of this.

But this wasn’t a defensive, rearguard display, aiming to frustrate and throttle the opponents. No, the Clarets carried a threat all night and ought to have scored at least one, but probably two.

An even first-half was encouraging, yet frustrating at the same time. That’s because Zeki Amdouni missed a golden chance to give his side the lead when he fired over from all of eight yards after being played through by a deceitfully clever pass from Anass Zaroury, who was back in the starting XI for the first time since the Bournemouth game in October.

It was the first of two bad misses from Amdouni, there’s no getting away from it. After going behind to a moment of brilliance from Pedro Porro 12 minutes from time, the Clarets – who looked dead on their feet – threw everything they had at Spurs in the final stages.

Hannes Delcroix, who was Burnley’s standout performer on the night with his best display in a Claret shirt to date, had a close-range effort cleared behind for a corner.

With Arijanet Muric coming up, the keeper almost contributed to a moment of dramatic brilliance as he glanced on the delivery to the unmarked Amdouni, who was left completely alone inside the six-yard box. Yet he failed to hit the target with his snapshot and the chance, plus the opportunity of a replay, went begging.

It was a bit of an off-night for Amdouni, who didn’t exactly cover himself in glory for Tottenham’s winning goal, either.

Muric must take his share of the blame for a powerful throw out from the back. The idea was fine, with Burnley looking to hit Spurs on the counter later on, but the execution just wasn’t there.

Some will say Muric should have held onto the ball and waited, but the space was there for Burnley to exploit. This is how they play.

Amdouni’s touch let him down though, gifting Porro the ball high up the pitch. What he did next though was sublime, picking out the top corner of Muric’s net with a swerving, dipping effort. Sometimes you just have to hold your hands up.

Levelling up

You always got the feeling a game as even and in the balance as this was always going to be decided by a mistake or a moment of brilliance. Unfortunately for Burnley it was the latter and that bit of quality was provided by the opposition – not them.

That has to be Burnley’s challenge now, they need to be the side making the difference with one moment, a bit of skill or a clinical finish.

While Kompany opted to make five changes, which is a few more than we were expecting, there can be no doubt Burnley took this game seriously.

Perhaps it’s not the worst thing in the world though to exit the competition at the first hurdle, to completely focus on the fight for survival. A replay only a few days after the must-win Luton game certainly would have been far from ideal.

Losing Charlie Taylor and Lyle Foster to injury was the ultimate blow, given their importance to the side.

Fingers crossed their knocks aren’t too serious, because it’s going to be all hands on deck for the final 18 games of the season and Burnley will need as much help as they can get.