SPARE a thought for Paul Crichton when you look at the Second Division table to gauge the impact of Burnley's fifth home defeat of the season, writes PETE OLIVER.

The Burnley goalkeeper has barely made a mistake since taking on the unenviable task of replacing Gavin Ward between the Clarets' posts.

Yet his team, along with York City, has conceded the highest number of goals in the division.

Crichton wasn't responsible for the results in 17 of Burnley's League games as Ward played out the three months of his loan spell from Bolton Wanderers. And he came into the side in the early stages of rebuilding.

But the now firmly established number one at Turf Moor has picked the ball out of the net 25 times in just 13 outings, more than half of Burnley's goals against tally of 49.

He has deserved better and Saturday's defeat to an 87th-minute goal from Luton substitute Gary Doherty was a case in point.

Crichton made half-a-dozen top-class saves but still ended up on the losing side as Burnley's inability to produce the goods at home continues to undermine their progress.

Even since Crichton started to play behind a revamped side that looks a match for anyone on their day, Burnley still can't get it right at Turf Moor.

The dismissal of Neil Moore for two innocuous challenges early in the second half on Saturday didn't help the Clarets cause.

But that couldn't disguise the fact that Burnley were outplayed in the first half and could have been well adrift by the break, rather than being held at 1-1 thanks only to a gifted Luton equaliser.

The Clarets defence was nowhere to be seen as Luton queued up to score on a couple of occasions, only for their players to remember the confidence crisis brought upon by one win in 13 games and duly fluff the chances.

Burnley dug in after Moore's dismissal and could point to two decisive moments when they should have scored the goals which may well have decided the outcome in their favour.

But Luton certainly didn't deserve to lose and will feel they did enough with their positive approach to warrant Doherty's late winner.

Apart from some woeful finishing, the Hatters certainly didn't look like a side on the slide.

The slick passing and movement that made them early season promotion candidates was too much for a ponderous Burnley outfit in the opening exchanges.

Only Steve Davis, playing against the club that sold him back to Burnley just over a month ago, stood firm as alarming gaps appeared around him.

Matthew Spring had already warmed the hands of Crichton when Ray McKinnon missed a sitter with just six minutes gone, failing to provide the finish Spring's excellent pass deserved. There was better still to come from Luton who strung together a dozen passes to take them from one end of the pitch to the other where Crichton smothered Stuart Douglas's effort. It was therefore against the run of play that Micky Mellon fired the home side in front with his first goal for the club.

Picking the ball up from Andy Cooke's neat lay-off, Mellon advanced and from 25 yards sent a skidding effort past rookie keeper Nathanial Abbey into the bottom corner.

At that point, Burnley boss Stan Ternent could have been forgiven for thinking that fertility treatment rather than tac-tics could have been the way forward.

Brian Reid followed up the birth of his first child with his opening goal for the Clarets a few days later back in September.

And having become a father last Thursday night, Mellon followed the trend.

Burnley should then have gone 2-0 up and even Luton manager Lennie Lawrence admitted that a second goal then would have produced "a whole new ball game."

But having been released by Davis' ball over the top, Graham Branch was unable to beat the advancing Abbey despite two bites at the cherry.

And Mellon's celebrations then turned sour when he presented Andrew Fotiadis with the kind of chance strikers must dream about.

Seeing his path to Glen Little blocked, Mellon failed to produce an alternative escape route and left Andrew Fotiadis with just Crichton to beat which he duly did with a composed finish.

If his colleagues Sean Evers, Paul McLaren and Spring had been as clinical then Burnley would have gone behind before half-time as they took it in turns to fire pot-shots at Crichton who manfully kept them at bay.

And after Cooke had stabbed a chance wide, Crichton was at it again early in the second half to thwart Douglas.

A minute later Moore challenged Douglas from behind and was shown his second yellow card.

And with Steve Morgan by now pushed up into midfield, Gordon Armstrong plugged the gap at the back and Mark Robertson filled in for him at the expense of Andy Payton.

Consolidation looked to be the name of the game at that point but rather than soak up pressure, Burnley got back at Luton as the game opened out in rapidly deteriorating conditions.

The fresh legs of Brad Maylett and Peter Swan gave Burnley an extra dimension and from Maylett's pin-point cross, Little should have headed the hosts back in front.

Cooke also drove into the side netting as Luton showed signs of cracking under pressure for the first time.

But the Hatters were still lively going forward and they finally made their numerical advantage count when Fotiadis and Spring worked the opening for Doherty to drill the ball past Crichton.

In keeping with an entertaining contest Burnley hit back immediately but Abbey made sure Crichton didn't monopolise the saves with a block from Cooke and an acrobatic tip-over to stop Swan preventing a second successive home defeat.

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