STAN Ternent survived his first game away from the touchline but confessed: "It was rubbish".

The Burnley boss watched from the directors' box as his injury-hit side extended its unbeaten run to ten matches, and he joked: "They are all managers in there."

With his place on the bench taken by fan Scott Atkinson, he saw Steve Davis make one for Robbie Blake and then score one himself before a late Walsall goal had him sitting on the edge of his seat rather than leaning back and relaxing.

But despite the impressive run of unbeaten games currently being enjoyed by his side, Ternent is still waiting for them to hit top form.

"All credit to the players because we have got injury problems but there is a lot more to come from this team," he said.

"Paul Weller had to come back because we were down to 16 players.

"Brizzer has got an injury, Tony Grant is carrying one, Alan Moore was out while Gareth Taylor and Dimi were away on international duty.

"All in all it was a good day's work although not how we would have wanted the last ten or 15 minutes."

For much of the game, Walsall's big centre halves Danny Hay and Ian Roper were dominant and Ternent admitted that the absence of Taylor had hit his team.

"Gareth adds another dimension for our play that can't be replaced by Payton, Robbie Blake or Ian Moore," he explained.

"Gareth leads the line very well and he is an aerial threat. We didn't have any against Walsall and that was a problem for us."

With the injury problems that have dogged his players all season, Ternent is delighted to have climbed to ninth spot having taken just one point from their first five games.

Almost incredibly they are now just three points away from a place in the top six although four of the next five matches are away from Turf Moor.