THERE may be 16 games to go, and indeed plenty of points still to play for, but perhaps now is the time to start seeing the bigger picture and looking beyond this season.

I was disappointed with last Saturday's result at home to Sheffield Wednesday but I thought, looking at individual performances, they've all got some quality about them.

It's been said through the week that the new players are all short of games - Steve Cotterill knows that more than anybody - and that's one thing that stood out.

But I'm sure that will improve as the weeks go on.

With that in mind, as difficult as it can be for supporters, maybe we need to exact some patience.

Not so long ago we had aspirations in the top six. The bigger thing now is to get out of this run and finish with a healthy league position.

I spoke to Steve when he first came to Burnley and he said it wouldn't take 12 months or two years to achieve what he wanted to achieve.

It might have taken longer than supporters and even the chairman might have liked, but Steve's only in his third year and I think the team's getting better year after year. The players have a lot more ability and this is more or less his squad.

The pundits had us down to be one of the favourites for relegation before the season started.

The supporters, like anyone else, all want success and to win every game, but if we can look to get into the best position possible we can look to getting into a top two or play-off position next season.

Obviously an immediate result would be welcome. The sooner we get a win under our belt, the better, and try to get on a run. But it's not going to be easy at Wolves tomorrow. They are all hard games in this division.

Two things that may go in our favour there, though, are the addition of Steven Caldwell and the return of Andy Gray.

Steven looked solid as a rock and I think he will be a good acquisition for Burnley.

Andy is someone the side have missed, there's no two ways about it. Any team would. But if he can build his fitness, sharpness and goal reflexes up, he will only get better, and I think the whole team will get better as a result.