Clarets chief Barry Kilby admits that manager Stan Ternent's transfer fund has dried up on the back of a £1 million trading loss.

But the chairman revealed that further cash could be on its way to bolster a promotion push in the not-too-distant future.

The initial £4 million injected into the club via Kilby, other board members and minor shareholders has been swallowed up.

But the Turf Moor hierarchy is working on a number of projects to increase Ternent's spending power in the coming months.

Kilby said: "We've increased the budget and we've used that but that's not to say we won't strengthen the team as and when.

"It's not to say there won't be some (money) further down the line. There are certain moves afoot.

"We aren't daft and we know the squad always has to be strengthened if we are to get where we want to be.

"And that's not to say it's not going to be this season. But it's a long season and we've got to keep some powder dry." Ternent is not crying out for players, having strengthened his squad signicifantly over the past nine-and-a-half months to guide Burnley from relegation candidates to sixth place in Division Two going into tonight's game at Cambridge United.

But he would like to be in a position to strengthen his hand when he feels it's necessary and so Kilby's balancing act of allocating funds could be crucial.

Burnley are expected to announce a record loss on the financial year ending May, 1999, despite Kilby's personal injection of £3 million and the remaining seven-figure sum which includes £500,000 from Ray Ingleby, £200,000 from John Turkington and over £100,000 from Clive Holt. Kilby added: "We have had transfers that have come out of that and during the last financial year we lost over £1 million and that had to be covered.

"We have pushed up our spending on players' contracts by about 30 per cent and that all had to be funded.

"The club is still losing money each week on general trading and that's all been whittling it (the £4m) down."

Without Kilby's arrival and the subsequent share issue, Burnley would almost certainly have been relegated and faced with selling prized assets like Glen Little and Andy Cooke just to survive.

And there would have been no question of buying club record signing Steve Davis or even 'free transfer' men like Mitchell Thomas and Paul Cook.

Burnley have therefore made massive strides but Kilby has likened paying off substantial debts by getting into the First Division like a vicious circle that needs to be broken.

Those debts, much of which are tied up in the new stands at Turf Moor, would be more quickly erased by playing in Division One. But getting there requires money now.

However, there is no doubting the chairman's commitment.

"We are really pushing. I want to get out out of this division," he said. "There has been a five-year plan put into place. There is an aggressive plan off the pitch to attract even more capital into the club."s=6os=6o

Burnley's FA Cup first-round clash at Barnet will be shown live on Sky Television on Sunday, October 31 (kick-off 1.00).

And the Clarets Second Division derby against Blackpool at Turf Moor may be put back a day to Sunday, November 14 to avoid clashing with England's Euro 2000 pay-off first leg against Scotland.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.