The Clarets appeared to be cruising towards victory after racing into a 4-1 lead, only for Cardiff to mount an extraordinary comeback and snatch all three points, leaving Celestini searching for answers after one of the most dramatic defeats of the season.

Despite the disappointment, the Burnley head coach believes the pause in Championship action comes at the right time.

“It’s very important,” said Celestini.

“It would have been better with a good result; it would have given a better feeling for the confidence of the players.

But in the end, we are in this situation.

We need to see the reality.

“The team can do something very good, and we do have players to come back.

“It’s been a tough week but it’s football, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but we must understand where we are and work for it.”

On Saturday, goals from Andreas Hountondji and Marcus Edwards put Burnley 2-0 up before Cardiff pulled one back through Ollie Tanner.

But Burnley appeared to be on course for a welcome win when Leeds loanee Largie Ramazani found the top corner with an effort from the edge of the area before Alex Robertson diverted Aaron Ramsey’s cross into his own net to make it 4-1.

Cardiff reduced the deficit when a Burnley clearance bounced off Cian Ashford and Yousef Salech – who had come off the bench less than two minutes before – converted to give the hosts a lifeline.

Jack Moylan cut the deficit to one when he scored from the spot after Connor Roberts was adjudged to have pushed Salech and the comeback was complete when captain Colwill’s cross found an unmarked Salech to head home off the bar to send the stadium into a frenzy.

Robertson then made amends for his earlier own goal by curling in a 30-yard wonder goal to secure the most unlikely of wins for the hosts.

Celestini admitted lifting his players after such a damaging defeat now falls firmly on his shoulders, but he remains determined to keep fighting.

“That’s my job.

We’ll still fight,” he said.

“We know we can score to be 4-1 here, that’s the positive.

Players are injured; they will come back into the team.

“We can work now for two weeks.

They understand where we are.

Now, we must switch, when we are winning one nil, we will not concede goals anymore.

That’s the spirit needed in the Championship.

“When you are winning 2-1, I understand the players may be fragile but here we are winning 4-1.

At 1-4 you’re wanting more control in the game, with the ball, everything.

We have to control the game until the end.

We don’t though, we concede four goals and that can’t happen.

“However, that’s the reality.

We’re ready, all my staff and me, we’re ready to work to get us out of the situation.”

The result was particularly frustrating for Celestini given Burnley’s encouraging displays in recent weeks.

“It’s what I must understand because after the previous two games, I see two solid games,” he said.

“QPR after 1-1, I was happy with the reaction.

But today at 1-4, we can make it 4-5, we had many, many occasions to win this game but in the end, something always happens.

“A penalty, a mistake.

Something happens, it’s not enough.

“Where we are in the table, that’s the reality.

Right now, we have to be ready to fight.”

The defensive collapse was especially hard for the Burnley boss to accept after spending much of the week working on that aspect of the game.

“It’s difficult to accept,” he added.

“The team were more consistent in the previous two games.

We trained exclusively in the defensive phases.

“When you are 1-4 and you have the possibility to score more goals, how you concede four goals in 20 minutes?

That we need to understand.

We have to fight on every centimetre of the pitch like it’s the last action in our career, not conceding goals like we did.”