THE Clarets start the week sitting proudly on top of the first division and manager Stan Ternent admitted: "It feels good."

Wolves failure to beat Sheffield Wednesday yesterday means Burnley retain the top spot they won with a comfortable victory against Coventry on Saturday.

And while Gareth Taylor and Glen Little got the goals, Ternent was in no doubt about what is the secret of his side's success.

"It is all about the team performance and it is all credit to the players," he enthused.

"There were also a lot of good individual performances but we have got good togetherness, good continuity and everybody plays for each other."

That was certainly the story on Saturday as they out passed and out played the Sky Blues for long periods of the game, snuffing out any hope of a comeback once they had taken a two goal lead.

But while Ternent was delighted to get back to the top spot they last held almost two months ago, he repeated his belief that the race for promotion will go down to the wire.

"Nobody is running away with the league at the moment and no one looks like doing it," he said, a point emphasised by Wolves' failure to beat struggling Wednesday. "I think it will go right to the end of the season, it is a very tight division.

"Any team can beat any other on a given day."

On Saturday it was his side that inflicted Roland Nilsson's first home defeat since he took over from Gordon Strachan earlier this season.

"Our ball retention was good and when they came back our defence was resilient," Ternent said. "But we are all comfortable on the ball, that is what we work on in training all week, we don't just go swanning round the gaff.

"We have had most of the players together for two or three years and we are used to playing different systems.

"We defended well from the front and Ian Moore and Gareth Taylor worked their socks off."

The only cloud on the horizon was the first half booking for in form Taylor, his fifth of the season, which will mean he is suspended for the top of the table clash at Crystal Palace on December 1.

But having taken advantage of a Coventry side depleted by both injuries and suspensions Ternent was in no mood to complain.

"Bookings and suspensions are a major part of the game," he said. "Lee Briscoe is suspended for the Grimsby match.

"It is just part and parcel of the game and all clubs have to live with it."

Ternent has other players on the brink of a ban with Tony Grant and Steve Davis both just one yellow card from an automatic ban.

The Clarets may be top of the table but they remain rooted to the bottom of the fair play league with 44 yellow cards already this season.

But any suggestion they have kicked their way to the top could not be more wrong as Coventry boss Nilsson acknowledged.

"Burnley are up there on merit, any team who leads at this stage of the season deserves to," he said.

Having still played less than half the season Ternent knows there is a very long way to go in the chase for promotion and he is the last man likely to get carried away by the situation.

But no one can blame the thousands of vocal fans who roared their team to success at Highfield Road for starting the week with a spring in their step and a copy of the table in thier pocket.

It certainly makes good reading for all Clarets fans.