GLEN Little admitted it's down to the players to save Burnley's skin after a 6-0 thrashing by Manchester City last night left the Clarets staring down the barrel at relegation.

That defeat, hard on the heels of a 5-0 home drubbing by Gillingham, could have led to a managerial change at Turf Moor today.

But whether Stan Ternent is replaced or not, the hard-core of the current squad will be needed to haul the Clarets back from the brink.

And Little confessed it's time to stand up and be counted.

He said: "I thought you might see the best of the players last night. But it could have been 12,13, 14 in the end. It was very disappointing.

"If we keep going like that we are down. If the players want to stay up and want to play well and do well I think we're good enough to stay up.

"But if we keep playing like that the way we are going we might as well chuck the season in now.

"You've got to be honest. And if I wasn't a Burnley player, if I was playing for someone like Manchester City, you'd be thinking Burnley were down. It's up to the players now, we've got to give it everything."

Little, who provided one of Burnley's few bright spots against City and will be a key player in the Clarets survival battle, added: "I thought we had quite a good chance. Obviously City are a good side going well but with a big crowd behind us I thought we could do well.

"I don't know what's happening. The players are distraught and feel sorry for everyone involved with the club.

"All the players are devastated and I think the gaffer is really. Whether he knows what's going on I don't know because I think the players just don't know what's happening.

"I can't honestly say it wasn't a lack of effort because I thought everybody tried their best. You don't want to go out on the pitch and lose 6-0 but we've had 5-0 Gillingham now 6-0 Man City and it's very worrying.

"I've heard the manager say he's got a meeting tomorrow so we'll just see what happens."

Despite still clinging on to 18th place in the table, Little believes Burnley are in a worse position than last season when they survived the drop on the final day.

"We are not in the relegation zone yet and while that's the case it's still in our own hands but last season we were looking like we were beating teams.

"We lost the odd game here and there, the odd bad defeat, but especially at home we were beating the Fulhams, Bristol Citys, Grimsby and you always felt we had enough firepower to win the games.

"But I don't know. We've had so much change and turn-around over the last two or three years. You've got the left-overs of Adrian Heath's team, Chris Waddle's team and now the new manager's come in and tried to change it round and you look on paper and you think on paper we must have a good side.

"We've brought players in and we've got players left over from last season who've done well yet we can't seem to get a win."

Burnley must now somehow rally themselves for the weekend's televised derby clash with Preston, with Little admitting: "There's no hiding place against Preston. You've got to go out there and give it your best and see what happens."

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