IT DIDN't feel like it at the time, but having a blank weekend might just have been a blessing in disguise.

Sure, it was unwelcome, unwanted and highly frustrating. Yet with both the manager and some of the supporters losing their heads of late, a cooling off period could be seen as being for the best.

The past month or so has been particularly trying for everyone involved with the club. And given the circumstances, it's little wonder that some are getting hot under the collar.

First of all there were the three consecutive derby day downers including the particularly hurtful loss to arch-rivals, Blackburn.

Then came the Barnsley game and Ternent's icy post-match blast directed at his players. Less than a week later, against Wolves, the boss laid into some of the fans as he misread their reaction to the introduction of Ronnie Jepson to the fray.

And finally, there was last week of course, when the build-up of acrimonious tension came to an ugly head in dramatic circumstances.

Withdrawing Andy Payton so close to the penalty shoot-out provoked a furious response from the fans. Ternent's angry gesture and subsequent lambasting of the supporters along with his threat to quit was the last, unedifying action of this troubled period.

So, what's going on? Quite simply, the answer is frustration. Everyone's feeling it. The supporters having seen the Clarets adapt to Division One life like a duck to water, have seen Burnley come unstuck in recent weeks. Losing is never a pleasant experience. But when you have won as often as the Clarets have since the start of last season, it is particularly hard to get used to.

Ternent too feels frustrated. He quite obviously wants the very best for Burnley Football Club. And it might just be that he feels that his current squad cannot take the club any further on down the line.

That is in no way to belittle what the players have achieved so far. In fact they have done magnificently. The Clarets currently lie ninth in Division One. Ninth, for heaven's sake! The teams above us are the likes of perennial promotion-chasers, Birmingham and Watford, the awesome Fulham and multi-millionaires Blackburn. In fact if you look below us there are what appear to be on paper at least, some fairly handy outfits too.

So let's re-group, pull together, get behind the lads and see where we end up come the end of May.