STAN Ternent is hopeful the Turf Moor purse strings can soon be loosened to allow him to strengthen a lightweight squad.

Saturday's battling draw with West Brom was achieved with a makeshift midfield that included Glen Little and later Dean West playing alongside Tony Grant in the centre.

Paul Weller's hamstring injury has exacerbated the midfield problem - and with only Ian Moore and Robbie Blake as striking options, Clarets chief Ternent called for help in adding to his numbers in the coming weeks.

He said: "The draw against West Brom is certainly a step in the right direction and if we keep at it we will be okay.

"At the moment I can't afford to strengthen the squad, but I'm hopeful that it will change in the next week or two because in fairness to the players they need some help.

"We are banging the big drum and saying we have no money - which is true - but the most important thing at Burnley Football Club in my view is the team.

"I am the manager and I probably would say that.

"But if the team does well, the fans will come and support the team and that's what we have to get back to in my view.

"There are more pressing things at the moment, but the players need a lift and I just say 10 out of 10 to all of them and credit to them for having a real good go.

"They want to be successful and I need to help them to be successful because I need a stronger and better squad at the level we are playing at."

Ternent summed up the progress being made by the team by insisting West Brom would have won Saturday's Turf Moor clash had it been staged earlier in the season.

The battling spirit in the camp was emphasised as Burnley grabbed the lead through Robbie Blake before Geoff Horsfield earned the 10-man Baggies a share of the spoils.

Ternent added: "It was an exciting game and I thought the players did extremely well under the circumstances.

"We don't have an aerial threat up front, so it's very difficult for us to put the ball in the box and that means we are a little one-dimensional at times.

"But the players stuck at it big style, we got a breakthrough and I thought we would go on and win it from there.

"Then David (May) stood up for an offside that wasn't and they finished it off. All in all though, it's a good afternoon's work and we haven't lost, when I think a month or two ago we would probably have lost that game.

"It's another game undefeated and another point in the bag, I prefer to look on the bright side and I thought we showed good patience and played well."

Ternent also dismissed opposite number Gary Megson's insistence that Rob Hulse did not deserve to be sent off for throwing an elbow in a an aerial challenge on Mark McGregor.

And the Burnley boss went one stage further by branding Baggies midfielder Andy Johnson a "coward" for an over the top tackle on Grant that incredibly went unpunished.

Ternent said: "I don't think there was a question mark about the red card. Hulse led with his elbow and the referee was right. But he missed the one when Johnson went over the top, which was scandalous.

"Then he had the audacity to give the free kick the other way, but when I tried to talk to him and the assessor about it, it was the normal response: no comment!

"It was a bad tackle - a coward's tackle and if Johnson had been sent off that would have been just, in my view."