BURNLEY opened their tour of Austria with a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Wacker Berghausen last night.

Lone striker Graham Branch made up for the absence of both Robbie Blake and Ian Moore with a goal to put the Clarets ahead early in the game.

However, the German Bundesliga Two side struck back mid-way through the second half to the annoyance of Steve Cotterill, who demanded his side show more steel to finally grind out his first clean sheet as Burnley boss.

"You can always take something from adversity," said Cotterill.

"We have not kept a clean sheet again and there's a few theories I've put to the boys on that.

"But on the night, we just had a few players who under-performed and that can contribute to a downfall in the whole team.

"What we have to learn to do when a few players are off colour is knuckle down and grind out a 1-0 win."

Cotterill, who was down to just 13 players - including coach Mark Yates - following niggling injuries to Blake, Moore, Paul Scott and Joel Pilkington, added: "We didn't have any outfield subs to speak of, but there's nothing we can do about injuries.

"But the plus side is that only having 11 players means we can push them because whatever formation we play, we are very close to a starting line-up."

Cotterill defended his decision to rest Blake, who joined Moore on the treatment table after aggravating a hamstring in training yesterday morning.

He said: "There is no doubt if we had Robbie we would have won that game, but it's not about now.

"It's about August 7 and if we play Robbie and he pulls his hamstring just because we want him to do well because we are away on tour, it is short-term gain for long-term heartache.

"Even without him, we dominated the first half and could easily have been 3-0 up.

"We dropped off in the second half and looked a bit leggy and lethargic, but that's pre-season and we have to push them a bit.

"At least we are fitter than we were yesterday, so we are reasonably happy.

"It's another work out and we have drawn with a German team who are close to their season starting now.

"This was their last game whereas we are still behind a little, but we got what we got and I think the lads are doing exceptionally well."

Burnley's second and final game of the tour comes on Saturday evening against a select 1860 Munich XI.