BURNLEY are on the brink of an unwanted return to the Football League basement and they need to start fighting for their lives.

The Clarets - who were still talking about promotion as 1995 drew to a close - are in freefall and looking anxiously over their shoulders.

One slender point is now the gap between them and the rest of the relegation pack.

It doesn't take a genius to work out where they are heading if they don't turn things around in the run-in.

The worrying thing for Turf Moor regulars is that the defence looks so vulnerable.

And if you are going to launch a great escape mission you'd want that area to be made as secure as possible.

Blimey, even Mother Theresa would be shamed by the generosity of the Clarets in recent weeks.

And against their derby rivals from Yorkshire the back four played as though they'd only been introduced minutes before the kick-off.

Bradford found every way possible to open them up and then went forward and invented some new ones.

I lost count of the number of excellent openings they squandered.

They were almost made to pay for them.

It would have been nice to report that Burnley too wasted some good chances. They didn't.

The home side rarely looked like threatening, particularly in a sterile first half display, when they never managed a shot on goal.

Even Kurt Nogan lacked the sort of menace that has brought him such rich reward this season.

It's strange then that the Clarets came within seconds of snatching a point.

That the visitors allowed a dispirited Burnley side to level things after strolling to a 2-0 interval lead will be a worry for their boss Chirs Kamara.

But it's Burnley boss Adrian Heath who'll be getting the grey hairs.

His men looked as though they had turned things around at 2-2 and with the visitors down to 10 men but then they hit the self-destruct button again.

Gerry Harrison - already booked - rashly brought down the ever-threatening Andy Kiwomya and the teams were level in numbers as well as goals.

Just to upset the home fans further Bradford waited until injury time before finally wrapping up what should have been a straight-forward victory.

A quick look at their recent form and a cursory glance at the League table made the Clarets' plight obvious to all before the off.

They are in desperate need of a lift.

But strangely until the half-time introduction of Liam Robinson they didn't seem to have any urgency.

They looked tired and, David Eyres apart, no-one seemed to want to take the initiative when they went forward.

Passing football is all well and good but you can over-elaborate.

You have to know when to hurt sides with a quick incisive ball and the Clarets lacked that clear thinking.

Robinson didn't completely transform things but he did give the side a little more zip.

He scored the 55th minute goal that breathed life into the Clarets.

And it was his header that was handled on the line which led to the equaliser mid-way through the second half.

Eyres slammed the ball home from the spot after Bradford defender David Brightwell had been red-carded for his impromptu goal-keeping display.

At that stage it looked as though Bradford had blown it.

They had enough chances - really good chances - to have been four or five up, instead they faced a born-again Burnley whipped up by a loud-at-last crowd.

Harrison then endured 60 seconds that went from bad to nightmare.

A 71st minute corner was only half-cleared and that ball was worked into his path on the edge of the area.

He struck the ball clean and true and the winner looked to be on its way.

But Jonathan Gould in the Bradford goal somehow saved.

And when they ball broke to the other end Harrison - booked on the hour for a foul on Kiwomya and let off with a warning minutes later for a similar offence - dived in, took Kiwomya's legs and not the ball.

He knew what was coming and was off before the referee could reach brandish the yellow card again and Bradford regained the upper hand.

Bradford had taken the lead when Neil Tolson ran through onto a long ball in the 37th minute and finished unchallenged.

Kiwomya, a constant thorn, played a big part in the second within second.

Beating Harrison on the flank he cut along the bye-line and his low, hard cross was turned into his own net by Mark Winstanley.

Mark Stallard gave Tolson a fine chance to make it three before the break and, before Robinson's intervention, Stallard and Kiwomya failed to cash in on poor Burnley defending.

That poor finishing looked costly after Burnley's fightback but, with time ticking, away Kiwomya turned home a Tommy Wright cross to leave Burnley pointless.

The Clarets have been sucked into a relegation dogfight and, now they are there, the players need to tighten up at the back. That much is obvious.

If they do that and show the sort of fight that saw them comeback from 2-0 down I'm sure they'll easily manage to save their season.

The alternative doesn't bear thinking about!

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