BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent hopes that next year's end-of-season plaudits will recognise a promotion challenge and not just beating the drop.

Plenty of congratulations have come Ternent's way since he guided the Clarets to Second Division safety at the end of an often tortuous season.

Given the problems at Turf Moor over the past 12 months, those messages represent a job well done.

But Ternent and the club's supporters will be expecting better as the new millennium starts.

The Clarets boss said: "It's been a difficult season and I'm pleased we've come through it.

"Everyone is saying 'well done this and well done that'.

"My idea of well done is not maintaining a Second Division status, although saying that after what we've been through this year we will have to be satisfied for this time around.

"Well done would be getting up to the top part of the league and maintaining what we have done over the last 11 games, the level of performance, resilience and the will-to-win. We have been a difficult side to beat.

"Since I came to the club we have had the facility to score goals.We just need to stiffen it up."

Ternent will aim to do that over the summer when he launches the second phase of his re-building job through the recruitment of a clutch of new players. The first phase became side-tracked by a fight for survival triggered by problems early on through a turn-over of players, lack of transfer cash, injuries and suspensions.

"I could not get a settled team. We had to keep chopping and changing and never really got any consistency going. That played a big part in it," admitted Ternent.

But with the Burnley boss able to land some of his transfer targets and establish the core of his own squad, the Clarets finished with an unbeaten 11-game run which set them pointing in the right direction and raised hopes of a promotion tilt starting in August.

"My idea was to bring some stability to he club and now that we have got through this season it was a good thing that we maintained our status," Ternent added.

"But as far as the supporters were concerned it was kind of a lost season - another lost season.

"The expectation level is great and I understand that. They want to get into the First Division and I know the players and I do. Next season we will start on an even keel."

Ternent has identified a number of transfer targets and will also monitor closely the list of players available this summer under the Bosman ruling.

They include Bury's Dean West, who could be a Ternent target if he rejects a new contract offer at Gigg Lane.

And Bury, relegated to Division Two, are also hoping to hang on to midfielder Nicky Daws, another player linked to his former boss Ternent, by offering him improved terms.

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