Burnley v Gillingham - Pete Oliver's big match preview

FROM this stage last season, Burnley needed five more wins to avoid relegation on the final day of the campaign with the last of those three-pointers coupled with a defeat for Brentford at Bristol Rovers keeping them up.

Not wishing to run the same gauntlet again, Stan Ternent's Clarets will be aiming to get those survival points in the bag as quickly as possible.

Their next chance comes against Gillingham at Turf Moor tomorrow when Burnley will be looking for their first home win in three months.

And manager Stan Ternent admits that three points would provide his players with the perfect tonic they need after a barren spell on their own ground.

"That would probably do them more good than anything. They need the fans to be right behind them and help them as much as they can to win a game.

"Last Saturday we never gave ourselves a chance but before then we had only lost two in 10, although we are not winning enough," he said. Burnley's plight is not as bad as 12 months ago, despite an identical record of 34 points from 32 games.

Chris Waddle's men were only three points off the foot of the table at this stage and when they lost their next game - at home to Wrexham - they were joint bottom.

This time the Clarets are 10 points clear of basement club Macclesfield and five points above the drop zone with Lincoln and Northampton below them both losing in mid-week.

That doesn't mean, however, that there is any room for complacency and Burnley need to play better to win the forthcoming games against their nearest rivals and banish any lingering doubts.

But Ternent is backing his players to pull through, although the problems in getting a settled side will continue against the Gills when Steve Davis is banned.

The Burnley boss added: "I have always said the players at my disposal are as good as most sides in this division. "That's what I think but we have been pushed from pillar to post with injuries and the changes we have had to make."

Some of those have been self-inflicted through suspensions but injuries have also played their part and Ternent hasn't often had a clean bill of health either for training or when naming his side.

Changes were also brought about by the switch from Chris Waddle's squad to the one Ternent is busy assembling.

And with money becoming available only from Christmas onwards, thanks to the cash injection from Barry Kilby, there were further changes when Ternent moved to strengthen his hand.

There has not been an immediate upturn in fortunes - although Burnley have lost just three times since Christmas - but Ternent believes it's just a matter of time before things click into place.

"Somebody will get on the wrong end of one," he insisted.

"The players I have brought in I have been really pleased about. Steve Davis, Micky Mellon, Lenny Johnrose and Paul Crichton are the only ones I have spent money on.

"The rest have been free transfers to help us through. I just want to get through to the end of the season."

Some of those free transfers will stay while some will fall by the way-side as Ternent continues his re-building in a job that, for him, has never been just about this season.

"I said when I took over it would be a longish job, although it's a tougher job than I first envisaged to be fair," he admitted. With just two wins in 12 League games and the next four fixtures pitching Burnley against promotion-chasing sides, the harbingers of doom might point to an extended fight against relegation.

But with Glen Little heading back to provide balance to the side and some much-needed ammunition for Andy Payton and Andy Cooke, that needn't be the case.

"You have got teams going for promotion and teams at the bottom. Who should be fighting harder?" asked Ternent, who expects his side to give every bit as much to the cause as Gillingham, Wigan, Manchester City and Preston.

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