I'M sure there were a few raised eyebrows when Burnley Football Club issued the list of the players they were releasing.

Stan Ternent had, days earlier, promised a shake-up. But the way he delivered that promise did come as a shock with the amount of names which appeared on the list.

The appearance of names including the likes of Ian Cox, Lee Briscoe and captain Steve Davis also came as a hammer blow to many Clarets fans.

Perhaps I'm being naive, but I never anticipated so many first team regulars would be saying goodbye to Turf Moor last week.

Which is why I have been left slightly baffled by a number of die-hard Burnley supporters who refused to go to the final game of the season.

Each one will have their own reasons, whether they be financial or principle. But equally, I feel that each one will be gutted at missing the opportunity to see fans' favourite Davis, among others, in action for the Clarets one last time.

Admittedly, those who had chosen to boycott the trip to Selhurst Park in protest at Wimbledon uprooting to play 70 miles north in Milton Keynes - namely members of the Clarets Independent and London Clarets Supporters Associations - had done so without knowing it would be their last chance to see 'Skip' and co in a claret and blue shirt.

And I fully understand their reasons for such a protest. What the powers that be at Wimbledon have done, with the backing of the Football League, is completely wrong. They have simply sold out to the highest bidder and to hell with the consequences.

They have battled through the bleakest, quietest atmospheres at the place they have called home since leaving Plough Lane in 1991 as Dons fans turned their backs in disgust on the club they adored. And few could blame them.

In an act of solidarity, supporters from other First Division clubs have followed suit, with the exception of Portsmouth, who were close to winning the championship the night they played at Selhurst Park and took around 10,000 fans.

Had this been any game other than the last one of the season, I wouldn't be writing this column.

But with Marlon Beresford, Gordon Armstrong and Steve Davis, three of the 13 released by Ternent, in the starting line-up for their last ever game for Burnley, while four others - Nik Michopoulos, Mark Rasmussen, Andrew Waine and Andrew Leeson - were on the bench, it's a game 478 fans were glad they had made the journey for.

And so was I. Aside from anything else, we were a part of history.