Cummings and Goings, with STEPHEN CUMMINGS

WELL, the good news is that if the current pattern continues, Burnley should stroll through to the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup tonight. The bad news is that by Saturday teatime they will have been sucked a little deeper into the battle against relegation.

Given the Clarets' recent 'win one, lose one' run, it appears that the recipe for success would be for Burnley to play all their games in midweek and somehow avoid weekend fixtures. In the past few weeks heroic victories against Aston Villa and Leeds United have been sandwiched in between disappointing displays against Derby County, Queens Park Rangers and Ipswich Town. In other words, the team has been consistently inconsistent.

There is, of course, one major reason for the recent hit and miss nature of performances -- Burnley's injury list. Danny Coyne, Richard Chaplow, Ian Moore, Frank Sinclair and Jean Louis Valois are all cluttering up the physio's treatment table.

Not only that, but Graham Branch is playing through the pain barrier while the heroic John McGreal appears to be enduring a painful cycle of receiving a battering, being stitched up and then being sent out for another pasting. Full credit to him.

Steve Cotterill quipped that as he tries to get a team out the club may have to rename itself Loans United -- it could just as easily rebrand itself Crock City.

In fairness to the manager, he deserves credit for his reaction to the current harsh bout of adversity. Rather than let his head go down or moan about the situation, he has simply got on with the job as best he can.

It is an attitude reflected in recent games against Aston Villa and Leeds United, when a patched up Burnley team scored convincing victories over opponents with stronger and deeper squads at their disposal.

However, pluckiness and determination will only win out over strength in depth every so often, Saturday's defeat being a case in point. The Clarets pretty much matched Ipswich apart from in the final third. Darren Bent was a livewire, whereas the isolated Robbie Blake cut a lonely figure up front.

His tricks and flicks did not come off, too many men crowded him out and passes to team mates frequently went astray. The skipper is capable of destroying teams, but is struggling for form at present.

So what chance victory tonight? On paper, slim, but the cup is the cup and it will be fascinating to see how an unsettled and indifferent Spurs side cope with a tricky trip to Turf Moor. Let's hope the answer is very badly.