STEVE Cotterill believes Burnley can spring a Carling Cup shock at Aston Villa - but only through a more consistent level of team performance.

The Clarets fell to only their second defeat in seven games at Crystal Palace on Saturday after a stop-start display.

And Cotterill knows his team need to be more on the ball to have a chance of dumping David O'Leary's Premiership strugglers out of the competition for the second year running.

He said: "We need to have all 11 players at their maximum to get results, so we have to go to Villa and keep the ball better than we did in the first half at Palace.

"That's without a shadow of a doubt.

"We have to make sure we start the game playing the way we did in the second half because that's the positive we can take out of Saturday's defeat."

The Clarets fell behind before the break to Clinton Morrison's sixth goal in ten games.

And a second half fightback was finally extinguished when Dougie Freedman found the target 11 minutes from time.

Burnley now take a break from their Championship exertions to transfer their focus to the cup clash at Villa Park, where they will be backed by at least 2,500 supporters exactly 30 years to the day since they played at the famous old stadium.

The Clarets still have a limited number of tickets left for this fixture form the Turf Moor ticket office.

However, Villa will make a further 1,100 tickets available at the ground before tomorrow's 7.45pm kick off.