IT'S less than six months since Burnley and Peterborough United crossed swords at London Road, but it must seem more like a lifetime to those closely connected to Turf Moor.

And they could hardly have envisaged just how vital tomorrow's return clash would turn out to be - for all the wrong reasons.

Cast your mind back to the end of October and a Tuesday night at London Road.

Then, Jimmy Mullen was among the candidates for the manager of the month award, Adrian Heath was simply another member of the playing staff and Burnley were in fourth place in the table, with all the talk of whether they could press for an automatic promotion spot.

Now, the Mullen era has been well and truly closed, Heath - not involved in the first game - finds himself with the leading role in a crucial production and the team are hovering precariously on the brink of the unthinkable; relegation back to the Football League basement.

Turf Moor boss Heath has made no attempt to disguise the importance of tomorrow's game to the club.

And, for Peterborough, it has been a season that has followed similar lines in some ways, especially in the management department.

When they played Burnley at home, they had just lost their manager, with John Still resigning only days before the game.

But, with Mick Halsall put in temporary charge, the Posh still looked capable of threatening the top half of the table.

Since then, Halsall's position has been made permanent, which is more than he believes Peterborough's might be in Division Two unless they pick up a few more points.

The Posh boss believes more than 50 will be needed to guarantee safety and that sort of figure is still a long way off for Burnley.

"We are not safe yet, not by a long way," he declared before Peterborough slumped to another morale-sapping defeat.

"I think we will need in the region of 54 points before we can think that."

Halsall is possibly being a little over-cautious when you look at the number of games remaining.

But if his estimate proves to be correct, then Burnley face a real dogfight to haul themselves clear of the abyss.

They are four points behind Peterborough, albeit with two games in hand.

Victory tomorrow is essential to their future plans, especially with two more daunting away fixtures coming up.

So much has changed since the last time they met, but Heath would give plenty for one thing to be repeated - the scoreline.

Burnley won 2-0 that night at London Road, with Peter Swan scoring his third League goal of the season.

The big central defender hasn't notched since then. But he went desperately close to ending that sequence in the defeat at Brighton on Tuesday night.

Tomorrow would be an ideal time for Swan, or anyone else for that matter, to rediscover the scoring touch.

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