A fan's-eye view from Turf Moor, with Stephen Cummings

RESPONSIBILITY. It's a big word. It's an important word.

And, worryingly, it's a word that seems to be missing from the vocabulary of too many people associated with Burnley Football Club at the moment.

It was missing in the way that Robert Taylor was allowed to score five times in 48 minutes (you might have thought they would have contemplated marking him after he completed a 40 minute hat trick).

It was missing in the lack of application and desire which ran like a sicknesss through the team. And in my opinion it was missing in some of the manager's actions. If this criticism stings, it is as nothing compared to the suffering endured by the Claret and Blue faithful last weekend.

Responsibility comes from the top, and in that respect Stan Ternent failed. There have been signs of this before, most notably of course the pre-Christmas debacle at Fuham in which the manager disowned his players, but last Saturday plumbed new depths.

One wonders for example exactly what it was the manager was hoping to achieve by making the team return to the pitch after only five minutes of the half time break. Given that Burnley were 0-4 down after 40 minutes, one would imagine there would be plenty to discuss during the interval. Ternent claimed that he thought the players deserved to take the stick from the crowd. The clear implication from this is that Ternent blamed the players, not himself for the abysmal display. And while it is true that the manager did not play, he was still responsible for team selection and tactics.

Ternent again passed the buck in the post-match press conference, making reference to a "cancer" in the club that had existed for two or three years, before promising to "cut it out". Again, the suggestion is, "It's not my fault."

In the main, this is nonsense.

True, the club has a poor record of late - four relegation scraps in the past five seasons (this one included) bear testimony to that. However, of the 14 players on duty on Saturday, 11 of them were not here during the club's cancerous period. So how has the disease affected them?

The bottom line is that we are now involved in a fight against the drop. To stop up, everyone at the club must shoulder their share of responsibility.

And, as I said, responsibility comes from the top.

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