I HAVE now been covering the Clarets for just over a year, a real mix of both good and bad.

Fans have been both "over the moon" and as "sick as parrots" but I can never remember seeing or hearing them as upset as they were at Bradford on Saturday.

The reaction to dismal displays against the likes of Brighton, Reading and Grimsby were nothing in comparison to the fury that greeted what on the face of it was a 2-2 draw.

Even today, four days after the event, fans are wondering how their team did not win. Those I have spoken to glaze over in bemusement before reddening with anger.

In years to come a glance at the record books will suggest that on September 21, 2002 Burnley travelled to Valley Parade and picked up a useful away point.

But the 2500 fans who were there know there are lies, damn lies and football results and the scoreline does not begin to tell the tale.

Fans are notoriously fickle creatures but the travelling Clarets support has time and again been commended not just by manager Stan Ternent but the players as well.

So when they come away from the ground embarrassed and angry in equal measures, then something must be up.

I have to admit I am still more than a little bewildered myself. I hate to dwell on private grief but for Burnley fans the events of the weekend will take some getting over.

If it is any consolation to them, they can take it as read that the players were just as gutted even if they were culpable.

Playing ten men is traditionally tricky, after all Everton lost an FA Cup final to Manchester United in 1985 after Kevin Moran had been sent off.

But playing nine men, it should be easy - shouldn't it? The Clarets have been widely condemned for playing keep ball but that was the right tactic, just in the wrong area.

Robbie Blake, who relished his return to Bradford, barley touched the ball in the last 15 minutes. Glen Little, all alone in front of me down the right, was similarly unemployed.

The quickest way the memories of Bradford will be banished is by taking three points against Wimbledon. And if they should achieve that, the Burnley boss would have a sniff at being named manager of the month for September. If they had not stuffed up at Bradford, that prize could already be in the bag.