BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent will not be keeping Estonian captain Martin Reim's despite an impressive display for the Clarets second string last night.

The 29-year-old midfielder had been on trial at Turf Moor and played in the 1-0 victory over Rotherham at Turf Moor.

"He did all right but we won't be keeping him. He is not better that what we have got already," said Ternent.

This is despite the fact Burnley will be digging deep into their resources to maintain their superb start to the season following enforced absences for a clutch of their key players.

Tuesday night's win over Norwich City lifted the Clarets back into the top four.

But the full cost of that victory has now become clear with both Lee Briscoe and Glen Little set for a spell on the sidelines.

Little has damaged the hamstring that recently kept him out for five games and could now miss a further three.

And Briscoe is facing a similar time out of action after having eight stitches inserted in a gash above the knee.

"He's going to be out for two or three weeks," confirmed manager Stan Ternent.

"Glen's hamstring isn't as bad as the last time but we're still looking at about three weeks and Lennie's the same."

Tough-tackling midfielder Lennie Johnrose missed the Norwich clash with an ankle injury he sustained at Birmingham last Saturday.

And along with Little and Briscoe he is now set to sit out the up-coming fixtures against Watford and Nottingham Forest and possibly Preston as well. And if the trio don't make it back by the time Burnley go to Deepdale on December 9, Ternent's resources will be stretched to the limit.

Midfielder leader Kevin Ball and the versatile Graham Branch have already been ruled out of that game through suspension.

The absence of both will be a blow and with Branch set to join Briscoe and Paul Smith on the sidelines, the Clarets will be short of left-sided players.

And a booking for either Steve Davis or Mitchell Thomas at Vicarage Road on Saturday would also rule them out of the derby clash with top-six rivals North End. However, the Burnley boss will endeavour to take the setbacks in his stride and barring any movement in the transfer market will place his faith in the strength of Burnley's squad.

And leading scorer Andy Payton believes there is plenty to be optimistic about after an excellent run of seven wins in 10 games that has taken the Clarets into an impressive position.

He said: "It would be false if it was August. But it's November, nearly December so it can't be false.

"We're not in there waiting to get beat. We are just taking each game as it comes but the club has got ambitions to get into the Premier League.

"We've been trying to keep a low profile but as players that's what we want to do.

"We're on 35 points at the moment and we've got a very hard run of games coming up.

"It will just prove whether we can or whether we can't."