RONNIE Jepson was left to wonder what might have been as Burnley brought the curtain down on their season at Northampton today.

The Clarets flirted with relegation until just a week ago.

But if they won at the Sixfields Stadium to consign Northampton to the drop this afternoon, there was every chance they would finish 12th in the Second Division.

That's thanks to a tremendous 10-match unbeaten run that brought Stan Ternent's men 20 of the last 30 points available to them prior to today.

And that left Jepson reflecting: "It's just a shame it didn't come a bit earlier. We have got some winners in the club now and the lads wish the season was just starting.

"It's taken Stan a while to turn it round, but it does. When we came perhaps we had a bit of a culture shock at how easily we got turned over.

"Now we are not getting beaten easily. We will stand up man-for-man and we will stick together collectively. We won't play as individuals, we will play as a team."

Jepson scored the winner against Fulham which guaranteed Burnley's survival last Saturday.

And despite the fact that he will be 36 next week, and has been linked in some reports with the vacant managerial job at Rochdale, there's every chance he'll get another contract at Turf Moor. "I suppose Stan and all of them will be geared up and can't wait for next season to start," Jepson added.

"He will have the lads in at different times over the summer and hopefully the fans, who were absolutely unbelievable again last Saturday, will be given something to cheer about properly.

"Not in fits and starts but from a good season of the team being up there and having a will to win for them, which is what they and the club deserve.

"But it's all right saying you deserve this and you deserve that, you don't get anything without hard work and being organised and standing up and being counted."

Burnley's upsurge in form coincided with the arrivals of Tom Cowan and Paul Cook, whose only defeat with the club came on their debuts against Preston.

Since then the values of mid-season signings Paul Crichton, Steve Davis, Ally Pickering and Micky Mellon have come to the fore.

The spending power of new chairman Barry Kilby has therefore proved crucial and exposed the problems at the start of the season when there was no money to spend.

But Ternent insisted: "I am not going to cry over spilt milk." And he believes a 10 or 11-game unbeaten run represents an impressive achievement.

"It's been a long, hard season but as I've said many times out of bad comes a bit of good," added Ternent, with reference to the young players who have come through to figure in the first team.

However, the Burnley boss won't want to rely on largely unproven players when he bids to guide the Clarets to a promotion challenge next season - citing the form of Chris Brass on his return to the side as an example of the competition for places he wants to foster.

"If you get competition for places you can survive injuries, suspensions and loss of form. In fact, loss of form goes out of the window because, if you aren't playing well, there will be someone else to come in," he said.

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