YOUR club needs you!

That's the rousing message from Burnley's operational director Brendan Flood.

The Rossendale-born businessman has expressed his disappointment at recent attendances for Championship against Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town.

While those games came on the back of the Clarets' Carling Cup third round tie at home to Portsmouth, meaning three home games in a week, Flood has revealed his concern about the lack of numbers inside Turf Moor.

An attendance of 10,711 for the Palace match on September 29 was the third lowest attendance in the division that weekend. The crowd for the following midweek game against Ipswich dropped by a further 759 supporters.

A crowd of 8,202 for the Carling Cup clash with Premier League side Portsmouth also fell short of expectations, particularly as ticket prices had been reduced to £15 for adults, £8 for under 16s and over 65s and £5 for under 16s when accompanied by an adult.

But Flood has urged the town to get behind Burnley if they want the team to be successful this season.

"We need the Burnley fanatics to get off their sofas and come and watch us instead of watching a Premiership team on Sky," he said.

"That's not to take away anything from the loyal supporters who come on week in, week out and share in the pleasures or failure that we experience.

"But we plead to the fanatics to come and support the team because there is more prospect of success if players feel appreciated.

"Off the pitch there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

"I think the atmosphere for the Blackpool and West Brom games was fantastic, but we were probably a little disappointed with the attendance on the Palace and Ipswich games."

And Flood believes any stayaway supporters who come back through the Turf Moor turnstiles will not be disappointed with the standard of performance.

He added: "Results-wise I think we were unlucky (not to win) against Crystal Palace at the end, and the second half performance against Ipswich was very good," he said.

"Prior to that, going to places like Colchester and Sheffield Wednesday and coming away with three points from both of them was an achievement."

Of the defeat in their last outing at Cardiff City, which was preceded by draws against Ipswich, Palace and Bristol City, Flood added: "I don't think we can be too hard on ourselves when we've created chances and been unfortunate not to score a winning goal.

"The positive think to look at is that we are creating the chances and potentially the team looks capable of getting into a higher gear as they all settle in and get to know each other better - getting unity amongst the men.

"I think we've got some leading characters and winners among the squad who are all, in their own right, players who most clubs would like in their team."