CHRIS Waddle today dismissed Sunday newspaper speculation that Aston Villa were hot on the trail of Burnley's young star Paul Smith.

A report claimed that Villa were leading the chase for Smith's services, with West Ham also interested.

But the Turf Moor player-manager said today: "Aston Villa weren't even at the game on Saturday and I don't know where these stories come from.

"I've told the players the same thing. Stories seem to come out without anyone contacting me. I haven't spoken to Brian Little.

"Besides, it would be hard for him to talk about taking Smithy because he hasn't even played for four or five games.

"It just annoys me. People were talking at one stage about Paul Weller and Manchester City. I know this kind of thing is part of the game but it's time-consuming answering questions about it. Whether it's agents trying to move players on or what, I don't know. But it's very frustrating."

Waddle was also clearly very frustrated about Burnley's home defeat by Wigan on Saturday, when Smith went on as a substitute.

Though he had a words praise for the fans who got right behind the team and stressed he could not have asked for more from the players in terms of effort.

After the match, however, there was a minor demonstration against chairman Frank Teasdale with a group of supporters gathering outside the main entrance to voice their protests.

"We had enough chances to get a result," said a disappointed Waddle.

"In the second half we were camped in their half but when we did create chances we couldn't get it in the net. It wasn't our day.

"We probably lack that sparkle in the final third, which has been a good point in our game in the last few weeks.

"I thought in the first half it was a good battle in the middle. "Their first goal was a fluke but it went in. Unfortunately we never seem to score goals like that.

"You can go back to the first Rotherham match when they scored two flukes, Bristol City also had a deflected goal.

"We just don't seem to get the same sort of breaks.

"The second goal was terrible and it changed the atmosphere in the whole stadium. Steve Blatherwick tried to play offside which was the wrong thing to do because we don't play an offside game.

"We can't make those decisions for them when they cross that white line. We didn't ask him to try to play offside but it's the decisions they make that keep players at the top and at the bottom.

"We need a bit of luck. I'm sure if we'd got a goal in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half we would have got something from the game.

"But the longer it went on the more frustrating it became and they got men behind the ball and made it difficult for us."

Waddle's relationship with the fans has been somewhat unpredictable but he gave them a special "thanks" for their efforts on Saturday.

"The fans want to do well, like we do, and they were behind us," he said.

"I'll protect the players but if they want to sing about getting the chairman out, that's up to them.

"I thought the fans were very good and it was quite funny that when the team was announced Lee Howey got the biggest cheer. That was a nice thing.

"They got behind us very well but in the last 10 minutes they could see we weren't going to break through and they turned their attentions on other people.

"But I can't fault them, they were very good."

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