JOHN Mullin's worst fears were realised as his former Sunderland team-mate Lionel Perez paved the way for Scunthorpe's shock 2-1 win at Turf Moor yesterday.

Perez made his debut on loan from Newcastle United and made his class show with a string of top-class saves, allowing Guy Ipuoa's two goals to end Burnley's unbeaten home record.

And for Mullin, one of those denied by Perez, it was what he has come to expect from the flamboyant French keeper.

The Clarets midfielder said: "I saw on Ceefax that he was coming on loan and I know all about Lionel from Sunderland. On his day he can be a world-beater and unfortunately it was one of those days.

"Sometimes when he's in that sort of form it's difficult to beat him and he made some tremendous saves which was frustrating for us.

"We were looking for an early goal. Everybody was expecting us to win quite comfortably so an early goal might have settled us down a bit.

"But we didn't get it, Lionel made a couple of good saves and we perhaps missed a couple of chances we shouldn't have done.

"And it just went from bad to worse really. They took the lead but in the second half we came back into it and I think everyone fancied us to go on to win the game. But it wasn't to be."

Mullin, who is closing in on a starting spot after playing for 45 minutes yesterday, added: "Everyone's been praising us for the start we've had this season, being up at the top, so we've got to deal with criticism for a couple of bad results now. "We've got to look forward. We've got a couple of tough away games coming up and we've obviously got to get some points out of those two."

Scunthorpe boss Brian Laws admitted that Ipuoa's late winner had been something of a fluke.

But the former Clarets defender felt it was the least his side deserved.

He said: "I don't think he meant it, to be honest, but you'll take every one and I think as far as clear-cut chances go we had the most.

"I knew Stan would throw the kitchen sink at us but our defenders were outstanding.

"We are not walking away from Burnley saying we snatched something. We deserved what we got."

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