ALONG with piles of unwanted turkey and the New Year chimes of Big Ben, you can always tell you're in the midst of the festive season when football managers start moaning about having to put their charges through four games in eight days.

Words such as fatigue, injury and burnout are used. You could be forgiven for imagining that players were being asked to scale Everest rather than simply play a few games of football.

But for those gaffers who still feel hard done by and are wanting a solution, they could do worse than take a leaf out of Burnley's book. For the first three games of the holiday period, the Clarets successfully avoided the onset of fatigue simply by not bothering to turn up for the first 45 minutes.

The Stoke game was a case in point. Burnley were still celebrating Christmas in the first half, only to come to after the interval and batter the Potters.

Gifton Noel-Williams epitomised the team. Cumbersome and a yard off everything in the first half, Noel-Williams was revitalised after the interval and was a real handful against his former employers. But the real star of the show was Wade Elliott who put in his best performance in a claret and blue shirt. It was fitting that he was involved in the build-up to Burnley's winner, a fine finish from Ade Akinbiyi.

The pattern recurred against Norwich, Cotterill said his players were "asleep" for the first half, perhaps literally in one or two cases. But the manager's half-time wake-up call was almost sufficient to earn Burnley a share of the spoils. Sadly, the damage had already been done in the somnambulistic first half.

With the exception of the last quarter of an hour against Sheffield Wednesday, the Clarets resembled a New Year's Eve reveller - unco-ordinated, disorientated and distinctly out of sorts. In what was probably the worst display of the season at Turf Moor, Burnley got exactly what they deserved, as they did at Loftus Road. Chris McCann's superlative strike should have been the foundation for victory and had Royce not denied Akinbiyi with a superb save, the Clarets may have left with all three points.

Four points from 12 is not a great return from the holiday period, but Burnley can console themselves with the knowledge that they go into FA Cup weekend still in touch with the play-offs.

In closing, congratulations to Chris McCann and Kyle Lafferty on their new contracts and a happy 2006 to you all.