Trouble at home as patchy Turf Moor form continues

JUST days after suggesting to the beloved that perhaps we shouldn't book Spring Bank Holiday weekend away - just in case - Burnley undermined my argument with their fourth home defeat of the season.

Stan Ternent's Clarets are on the upgrade but they aren't yet the finished article.

And the side's inconsistencies cost them dearly again as Chesterfield underlined the fact that they are the genuine play-off contenders.

Burnley couldn't cope with the loss of influential captain Gordon Armstrong who left the fray with a nasty head wound just 24 minutes in.

Armstrong is the type of player who's almost more noticeable when he's not there than when he is.

And his troops missed his ability to hold things together in front of the back four, break up attacks and launch Burnley into forward raids of their own.

Without him, the Clarets - so keen to build on their away-day success a week earlier - couldn't capitalise on the lively start given them by Andy Cooke and Andy Payton who were full of running up front.

Instead, Burnley's threat gradually ebbed away and Chesterfield looked the most potent force, although it took a disastrous own-goal to set them on their way.

Once in front, John Duncan's men, with only one away win and five away goals to their credit before Saturday, are not the types to relinquish an advantage easily. And despite surrendering the territorial advantage in the second half, they counter-attacked superbly to claim a second goal that gave them the cushion to survive Cooke's late riposte.

Despite his recent spending spree, Ternent knows his squad still lacks depth and with three players ruled out through suspension and international duty his resources were stretched.

Mark Robertson's Australian under-23 call-up pressed Glen Little straight back into action rather than via a possible 30-minute burst from the bench.

And Robertson's absence, coupled to Mark Ford's one-match ban, also stripped Ternent of a further option in central midfield once Armstrong had clashed heads with Jonathan Howard.

Centre-back Brian Reid was also forced to sit this one out and Peter Swan wasn't able to command in his usual manner as he felt his way back after only one starting appearances since October.

Add that to a less than 100 per cent Graham Branch on the left wing because of the effects of a heavy cold and Burnley were not firing on all cylinders.

But that shouldn't obscure the fact that four or five players were below par in a poor team performance that rarely promised to relax Chesterfield's grip on a top seven spot. The Spireties looked to have progressed a long way from the dour side of recent seasons and could afford the luxury of a missed sitter from Howard six minutes into the game.

The Chesterfield striker was left completely in the clear by Swan's mis-kick and having done everything right in committing Clarets' keeper Paul Crichton, he then sliced a shot wide from 10 yards.

It was the stuff of nightmares for a would-be goalscorer and it looked for a while as though Payton and Cooke would show him how as both went close in a brisk start.

Swan also had a header cleared off the line as Burnley sought the opener but Armstrong's departure swung the balance as Chesterfield began to take the ascendency and the home side played on the break.

There was no real threat on Crichton's goal, however, until Pickering inadvertently gave the visitors the lead.

Sweeping up from a Chris Perkins cross, the Burnley full-back looked to have averted the danger until his attempted clearance screwed horribly away from his left foot and into the corner of Crichton's net.

Cooke immediately had to stop it becoming two with a goalline clearance from Mark Williams' header before the Burnley striker, revitalised by last weekend's winner, pulled a shot wide when he should have hit the target after a neat link-up with Payton. Burnley increased the pressure if not the quality after the break as they tried to repair the damage but Chesterfield broke fluently and forced Steve Morgan into some manful defending.

Steve Davis, who resumed the captaincy after a three-year break following Armstrong's departure, did his best to lift the Clarets with some forceful runs and sweeping passes from the back.

But it came as no great surprise when Chesterfield scored the vital second.

Ebdon had just seen a shot touched onto the post by Crichton when Davis conceded possession to Howard and he advanced before squaring for Chris Beaumont to drill home a 16-yarder.

Williams almost made it three but Crichton pulled off a stunning reflex stop and that save paved the way for a belated Burnley fightback.

Seventeen-year-old substitute Brad Maylett made his biggest impact yet as the Clarets, with Swan up front and Little pushed inside, played 3-4-3 in search of some salvation.

And it was a perfect cross from Maylett which allowed Cooke to head home and halve the deficit at 2-1 with nine minutes, including four in injury-time, left to pull off an unlikely draw.

But Burnley weren't allowed to build up a sustained spell of pressure as Chesterfield ran out the clock to secure a deserved victory and put the Clarets' revival on ice.

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