"I HEARD that Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were having a chat and they both said I don't fancy that Stan Ternent's job!"

As pay off lines go it was typical of those from the Burnley boss's repertoire and it certainly raised a laugh in the press room.

But on the biggest gambling day of the season the safest bet of the season is that Ternent was not laughing in the dressing room minutes earlier despite watching a comedy of errors.

"Ridiculous, nowhere near good enough," he fumed.

Having seen his side score five away from home and lose at Grimsby, he probably thought things could not get worse but his team proved him wrong.

Despite netting four at home, against a side with only 12 away goals in 19 matches all season, they managed to conceded a far from magnificent seven. So that is now eight games without a win, a defensive record that is joint worst in the division alongside Grimsby and the third time they have conceded six or more in a match.

It was all too much to take for some Burnley fans who thought the worst was behind them after a miserable March so it was not a surprise that it did not take long for the "Super Glen" chants to start. The anger at the decision to loan out the talismanic winger persuaded a large number of fans to stay at home and watch the Grand National.

But the fact that Little was missing had little to do with the calamitous display at the back that saw Watford net five before the interval. Perhaps more telling were the chants for Nik Michopoulos as Marlon Beresford produced another uncertain display between the sticks, although he was hardly helped by defending that would make a schoolboy blush.

Before this season Beresford had never let six in, now Watford have gone one better than Grimsby and Rotherham. He admitted last week that a keeper needs broad shoulders and he is lucky there were only 10,000 Burnley fans at Turf Moor to get on his back and test just how broad they are.

As the players went off at the break, the problem for the fans is that they did not know whether to laugh or cry, cheer of jeer, as their side had managed to score four times themselves with Gareth Taylor bagging a first half hat-trick, the first of his senior career.

But even that feat, taking him to the 16 he scored last season, was not enough to leave him with a smile on his face.

"It was my first senior hat-trick but it was disappointing," he said.

"People will draw comparisons with the Grimsby game but the fact is that we have lost both games. If you score four goals at home, you can't be losing the game. The whole squad went home after the game absolutely gutted."

Taylor may have been Burnley's hero but his haul was bettered by the irrepressible Michael Chopra, the young England Under-20 striker who is on loan from Newcastle United.

"Michael Chopra had his first game for us at Sheffield Wednesday, they were fighting for their lives and we could not get it down to play," said Watford boss Ray Lewington. "He probably wondered what he had let himself in for but we got the ball down, got it into him and he showed some great finishing. The first goal was fantastic."

For the record, by the time he got on the scoresheet three of his new team mates had already done the same. After a quiet, even dull, opening 13 minutes defender Wayne Brown planted a free header beyond Beresford with the first effort on target.

That sparked 32 minutes of madness with the next eight goal attempts also nestling in the back of the net.

After great work by Robbie Blake, Taylor headed his first in the 15th minute but within seconds Micah Hyde restored the lead. Cox then emulated Brown with a free header from a corner before Chopra got his first with an exquisite finish.

Davis then Taylor made it 4-3 before more slack defending gifted Chopra space for his second. In first half stoppage time Taylor completed his hat-trick with a great strike after holding off Cox.

Arthur Gnohere replaced the ineffective Tony Grant for the second half and he and Taylor forced early saves from Alec Chamberlain after the break. But after Taylor had thumped a header against a post in the 59th minute a kamikaze run from goal by Beresford allowed Neal Ardley to put Chopra in for his hat trick.

The game was lost but Chopra's fourth rubbed salt in Burnley's gaping wounds.

There was one bright spot for the home fans, a cameo appearance from youth team striker Matty O'Neill. The lack of young players coming through has been a source of concern for home fans at a club with such a proud tradition in bringing talent through the ranks.

But O'Neill came on with no fear, looked comfortable on the ball and launched a couple of the long throws into the box that have been seen by the Burnley fans who go to the reserves on a regular basis.

"I was very pleased for Matty," said Taylor. "It is good to see young players coming on and making a debut and he almost set up a goal."

O'Neill and Taylor were the only two players to raise a cheer from the smallest league gate since the club returned to the first division.

The prospect of a Red Rose derby might be enough to persuade a decent crowd to turn up at Turf Moor tomorrow night as they take on Preston.

A couple of weeks ago they embarked on a run of five successive home games in the belief that 15 points might keep a play-off dream alive. With only a draw against Grimsby to show for their efforts, nothing more than victory will satisfy the disgruntled fans - not to mention the manager!

BURNLEY 4 (Taylor 15, 39, 45, Davis 35)

WATFORD 7 (Brown 13, Hyde 17, Cox 26, Chopra 29, 40, 62, 90)

Turf Moor: Att: 10,208