BURNLEY fans were left disappointed when the much-hyped protest over the collapse of ITV Digital outside the Carlton and Granada offices last week failed to live up to expectations.

Ten members of the London Clarets - and around 20 other fans from Cambridge and Brighton - gathered outside the Granada offices on the South Bank of the Thames to protest against Granada for walking away from the ITV Digital TV deal when clubs were still owed £178.5million.

Two days previously, Football League chairmen - who were joined by Clarets chief executive Andrew Watson - took part in a similar protest outside the Carlton offices which was hailed as a great success and was covered widely in the national and regional press.

Both protests were organised by the Football League, but London Clarets chairman Andrew Firmin was disappointed with the organisation of the fans' protest.

"It was very disappointing," he said. "There were only three clubs there instead of six and we had to stand across the road from the Granada building, which is a pretty anonymous-looking 1960s office block.

"There was also a heavy stream of traffic between us and the building.

"One of our members went inside with a fan from Cambridge and one from Brighton to hand in a petition but they were told the chairman of Granada, Charles Allen, wasn't there.

"The only people going in and out seemed to be secretaries and so on so it felt pretty futile.

"And there wasn't really anybody there from the League."

Somebody was handing out placards but even they were disappointing because they had a strange cartoon with the two chairmen on the front with a question about the real danger to football.

"The placards weren't even making a statement, they were just asking a question.

"There didn't seem to be much imagination going into it.

"I think we could have had a kick-about or something. I know afterwards our fans really felt they had wasted their time."

The League arranged for fans from six clubs each day to go to the London offices of the media giants but Firmin said the organisation was shambolic.

"The communication could have been better," he said. "The information we got from the League kept changing.

"They told us at the beginning of the week that only the Bristol Rovers fans could go to Carlton because of a lack of space and the rest of us had to go to Granada. I don't know if that happened because they didn't tell us any more.

"I think a better way to do it would have been to get all the fans together in London one day for a mass rally around Trafalgar Square. That would have increased awareness and would have got more coverage."

"We handed out leaflets, though, and that seemed successful."

Firmin stressed that he was fully behind the protests' aims, even if the execution of the protest wasn't up to scratch.

"I want the League's campaign to succeed," he said. "I don't want to talk it down too much but we didn't come out of it with much confidence."

Fans are still being urged to write to their MPs as well as the chairmen of Carlton and Granada.

Firmin said: "They did a deal with the Football League and now they have walked away from it. We should do all we can to make them pay up.

"Fans should also boycott advertisers on Carlton and Granada."

Clarets chairman Barry Kilby was at the London Clarets' AGM on Saturday and he urged the fans to continue the protests.

"He said we must keep putting the pressure on," said Firmin.

The League signed a new deal worth £95million with Sky a fortnight ago so clubs will get some money this month. But the Clarets will only receive around £750,000 as opposed to the £3million they were expecting from ITV Digital.

"It was probably the best deal we could have hoped for in the circumstances but I don't think we should paint Sky as the saviours of football," said Firmin. "It's not a great deal."