Cummings and Goings - a fan's eye view, with Stephen Cummings

"I'M FINDING out who my friends are very quickly - and we haven't got many in the stadium." Should Chris Waddle continue to make such sweeping statements, he will soon discover his circle of friends decreasing yet further.

For Burnley supporters, the most distressing aspect of the player manager's remarks on Saturday is their obvious and stinging sincerity.

A benevolent observer might be tempted to write off Waddle's words of wrath as an emotional, spur of the moment outburst.

However, not only is the boss unrepentant, he had even gone as far as to reiterate his beliefs through local media outlets. As supporters, the only possible conclusion we can draw is that Chris Waddle meant every word he said.

The grand irony of the whole situation is that Saturday's display of support was arguably the best under his brief tenure

The Clarets received almost constant encouragement from three sides of the stadium.

The only time the fans became frustrated was during a brief spell in the second half, when Lee Howey passed up three reasonable opportunities to level the score. To this correspondent, that was wholly understandable because in a week which saw Burnley sitting fourth bottom of Division Two, dumped out of the Cup in humiliating fashion and heading for another home defeat, is it any wonder that tempers became a little frayed?

Besides which, having shelled out between £9 and £14 to watch the match, the fans had every right to voice their opinions - either on the team as a whole or on individual players.

And in any instance, what other avenue is open to supporters to express their views?

It might also be borne in mind that those who part with money and pass through the turnstiles have been doing so for years. Between us we have seen 100s of Burnley players in 1,000s of fixtures at Turf Moor. And believe it or not we are fairly knowledgeable about football and what constitutes a good Burnley player. So when we believe that somebody isn't right for the team we will let them and the management know, via the only outlet available to us - the terraces.

For ultimately this club belongs not to the directors, management or players, but to us, the supporters. In light of this, I would urge Chris Waddle to think with a little more care the next time he considers calling the club's lifeblood "am embarrassment." We'll forgive you, Chris - but we won't forget.

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