CHRIS Waddle was sweating on a positive answer from Gerry Creaney this afternoon, as he waited for the Manchester City man to respond to Burnley's offer of a permanent move to Turf Moor.

The player-manager is desperately trying to give his side a lift before tomorrow night's FA Cup first round replay against Rotherham United.

And he feels that a 'yes' from Creaney could do the trick.

But Waddle was wary of building up his hopes too much as he went training today, no doubt with fingers firmly crossed.

"Hopefully we will find out later today and we hope it's the right decision for us," said Waddle.

"I suppose you could say it's 50-50 but the lad is thinking about it so he must be interested.

"There's nothing else we can do, however, until he makes that decision."

Burnley suffered their third League defeat in a row at Grimsby on Saturday to leave Waddle frustrated and a little confused as to why things have suddenly gone sour on them.

"Whether it was Gerry Creaney going back to Manchester City and that upset the shape of the side I don't know," he said.

"But the players should be high on confidence after the run they had."

Waddle had a 30 minute talk-in with his players after the 4-1 defeat at Blundell Park where the Clarets have not won for 50 years. He explained: "We had a good half-hour chat and discussion. We talked a bit of sense. Some players are low in confidence and belief and it just seems hard work for some of them at the moment.

"A few players have dipped in form after a good little run and we can't understand why."

Waddle spoke at length about the Burnley goal that never was and the second Grimsby goal on 58 minutes that turned the match.

He said: "Even their players thought Paul Barnes' header was a good goal. The linesman flagged for some infringement but the ref had the better view and he should have over-ruled him.

"Incidents like that change games. We could have gone in 2-1 up instead of 1-1.

"I didn't think there was anything in it in the first half. But we had a difficult half-hour in the second.

"There's no excuses. We lost the quality we have shown to cut teams open and a bit of edge.

"The result was disappointing but we played quite well in the first half." Lee Howey missed out on Saturday as he was suffering from flu, while Paul Weller was handed Chris Vinnicombe's role as a tactical change.

Waddle is hopeful Howey might be fit for tomorrow.

"He couldn't lift his head off the pillow on Saturday but, ironically, he was already on anti-biotics for a gash on his elbow. So that might help him," added the manager.

"We'll probably have to check him tomorrow."

The Clarets Independent Supporters Association has written to each member of the Burnley board in the hope of setting up lines of communication between the directors and fans.

Burnley fans are reminded that it is all pay against Rotherham tomorrow night and, for this game, concessions are available at the turnstiles.

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