IT'S just as well that Clarets chairman Barry Kilby is used to working with figures.

And the fact that he's made a tidy sum out of lottery games may also come in handy as Burnley approach their final two games of the campaign with their destiny still undecided.

Kilby freely admits that he's spent the week working out every points tally and possible permutation in a promotion race that's too close to call.

And the fixture list on his office desk is well thumbed as he ponders why Cardiff City have got to play at Stoke on Sunday and then Gillingham just two days later in games that could influence Burnley's fate.

The Stoke police have the answer to that one as they have insisted on a Sunday game to reduce the risk of crowd trouble.

And it's outside factors that could determine whether Burnley win automatic promotion or have to do it the hard way through the play-offs.

"We could go into the last game of the season with the three options still on," mused Kilby, whose two-year promotion plan could be achieved at the first time of asking.

Fears of missing out altogether will go out of the window if Burnley win at Turf Moor on Saturday and Millwall, Bristol Rovers or Stoke fail to pick up three points over the weekend.

And Kilby is backing Stan Ternent and his players to pull it off with games to come against Cambridge and then Scunthorpe, who will be relegated if they lose at Oxford on Saturday. "If we had been offered this at the start of the season you would have taken it and I think we can do it," he said.

Two more wins could be enough for the Clarets to clinch second spot.

And Kilby is full of praise for the way Burnley have risen to the challenge, winning five of their last six matches and losing just once in 11.

"If we win our last two we can do no more. One of the great things is that when we have had a knock-back we have picked ourselves up and come back at it.

"The spirit has been great and let's hope we can do it," he added.

The tension-packed wins over Millwall and Brentford last weekend kept the pressure on Wigan and Gillingham, who know a slip-up could let Ternent's men in.

Kilby was among some 14,000 Burnley followers who could barely watch last Saturday as Millwall eroded the Clarets' 4-0 lead.

And as the promotion race takes over the lives of most Clarets fans, Kilby is no different. "It's difficult because I have a real job to do as well," added the chairman, who still has to split his time and energies between running the football club and his Blackburn-based media games company Europrint as its managing director.

"With my character it's all right because I'm not a panicker.

"But I am a fan like everybody else out there and it is a bit hard to concentre on anything else over these last two weeks.

"It's nerve-wracking but we've just got to try and keep calm. What you can say is that it's been fabulous entertainment and very good football, I think," he added.

I think so too, but who wouldn't put up with a stinker on Saturday if Burnley can win it and Wigan and Gillingham lose to Wrexham and Brentford respectively.