ANOTHER point closer to safety, nother place higher up the league and another clean sheet.

Sure, nothing to get wildly delirious about, but perhaps grounds for cautious optimism.

But the thing is, you would be hard pushed to find much optimism amongst the Claret and Blue faithful at the moment following last week's announcement that the club is a little over a month away from running out of money.

Chief executive Dave Edmundson will hardly have sent shock waves through the town with his announcement. What it will have done however, is brought things sharply into focus.

To be told on a weekly basis for the last two years that the club is in financial difficulties is one thing. To be told that if the worst comes to the worst the club could shortly be in administration is quite another.

Last week, Edmundson made it clear where he hopes the money will come from to keep the club alive -- Burnley's stay-away fans. If it sounded a little desperate that's because that is the exact nature of the current situation.

Everything else has been tried; the release of 16 players last summer, sales of Taylor and Papadopolous and even the chairman pumping his own cash into the club. And still Burnley lost £12,000 every home game and are facing a cash shortfall of almost £750,000 for the current season.

The club is clearly on its knees.

Whether or not the chief executive is successful in encouraging more supporters to come through the turnstiles remains to be seen, but the omens are not good. For example, even reduced ticket prices for games against Rotherham and Reading were not as successful as the Turf Moor money men would have liked.

"We have to make Burnley the people's club" claimed Edmondson. The problem is that not enough of the Burnley people want their club at the moment. And with the Clarets languishing in the lower reaches of Division One, that is unlikey to change in the foreseeable future. The bottom line is that one thing, and one thing alone, will bring the stay-away supporters back to Turf Moor -- a successful first team.

Meanwhile, rumours about Robbie Blake being sold to Sunderland refuse to go away. Should Sunderland make an offer, the board could find themselves in a no-win situation. Should they sell Blake, the club's short-term financial future may be ensured, but at what cost to the club's Division One survival and its impact on gates?

Keep the player, however, and the spectre of administration will continue to haunt Turf Moor.