BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent insisted today that he's fully signed up to the Clarets cause.

A report in one of the Sunday tabloids yesterday claimed Ternent was yet to sign the new deal put to him by the club and was stalling on an answer.

However that was quickly dismissed by the Clarets manager, who committed himself to the club for another two-and-a-half years just before Christmas.

"That's not true. I signed it before one of the games last month," said Ternent, who, along with assistant Sam Ellis, put pen to paper on a deal that will keep him in charge at Turf Moor until the summer of 2003 prior to Burnley's home win over Nottingham Forest on December 2.

Meanwhile, Ternent refused to get drawn into a war of words with Scunthorpe boss Brian Laws, who took a further swipe at the Clarets players in the aftermath of last Tuesday night's cup-tie.

Laws claimed some of Burnley's players had spoken out of turn during the replay which the Third Division club won on penalties.

He said: "I have a lot of affection for Burnley and I'm not going to rubbish the club because it's not their fault.

"As far as I'm concerned the fact we won proved that highly paid footballers who aren't bothered about results shouldn't start belittling lower division sides.

"There is no place for jibes like 'my bank balance is bigger than yours' on a football pitch. It's like being at school when kids say 'my dad is bigger than yours.' I thought football was supposed to be an adult's game.

"At the end of the day my players showed tremendous restraint and great attitude. We might be a Third Division side but I wouldn't swap any of my players for Stan Ternent's."

But Ternent believes it's Laws who's been talking out of turn.

The Burnley boss said: "When you are a young manager making your way in the game you learn quickly not to take about other people's teams.

"I haven't seen it and I won't be drawn into that but one of the golden rules of management is that you don't talk about other people's teams."

While Burnley were left to kick their heels on Saturday, it was a good weekend for a handful of their former players.

Matty Heywood, who joined Swindon Town on a free transfer from Turf Moor last week, marked his debut by helping the Robins to a 3-0 win over Bury as Andy King's side climbed out of the bottom four in Division Two.

At the other end of the table Andy Cooke scored the first of Stoke's goals in their vital 2-0 win over promotion rivals Wigan Athletic.

And Alan Lee was on target as Rotherham beat Port Vale 3-2 to stay in fourth place.

In Division Three, Kevin Henderson netted twice as Hartlepool won 3-1 at Barnet to maintain their play-off challenge. However, Mark Ford was sent off as struggling Torquay lost 3-0 at leaders Chesterfield.