BURNLEY Football Club will be hoping that 2008 is, indeed, a happy new year.

For the last 12 months have not brought the Clarets good fortunes at Turf Moor, winning only six out of 21 Championship games on their own pitch.

Getting 2007's home fixtures underway with a 1-0 defeat to Stoke City was one of 19 games, in all competitions, that Burnley went without a win last season.

That miserable run was ended in emphatic fasion on April 3 when goals from Michael Duff, Paul McVeigh, Steve Jones and Wade Elliott sank Plymouth Argyle 4-0.

Like waiting for the proverbial bus, proved to be a result that opened the floodgates as Cardiff were beaten 2-0, Norwich 3-0 and promotion hopefuls West Brom 3-2.

But kicking off the 2007-08 campaign with a 2-1 win over the Baggies proved to be a false dawn, as the Clarets, although unbeaten until the end October, have only collected a further three points, from the visit of Norwich, since then.

There has, however, been better news off the field, with the summer announcement that their 122-year-old stadium was set for a £20million facelift, while some of that money will also be spent on developing an Academy at the Gawthorpe training ground.

But former manager Steve Cotterill felt that the hype surrounding the developments, as well as the Premiership Pledge - an incentive scheme whereby supporters who purchased season tickets before the summer deadline would be able to watch home games free of charge should the Clarets win promotion this season - was creating extra pressure to perform and becoming a burden on the players.

"The crowd are more anxious this year than they have been before because of all the hullabaloo that's gone on off the pitch.

"That's a definite fact. There's less patience with the boys at home now, and I don't think that's fair," he said, following the 1-0 defeat at home to Hull City, which proved to be his final game in charge as he left the club by mutual consent later that week.

Cotterill's replacement, former St Johnstone manager Owen Coyle, has suffered similar misfortune at Turf Moor, with back-to-back defeats against struggling QPR and Preston North End coming on the back of draws against Stoke, in his first game, and Leicester City.

After being held by the Foxes, he said: "If we keep giving performances like that, keep creating chances, then those home wins are just around the corner, there's no doubt about that."

But away from home, it's been a very different story, particularly in the latter part of the year with Coyle unbeaten in three games at Watford, Charlton Athletic and Wolves, while in the first game of the post-Cotterill era, before Coyle's appointment, the Clarets beat Leicester 1-0 at the Walkers Stadium.

Paul Smith, of Boundary Clarets and the Lancashire Telegraph Burnley jury, follows the Clarets home and away, and believes the players are benefiting from a more positive atmosphere on their travels.

And he has urged home fans to make backing instead of booing their New Year's resolution in a bid to turn their Turf Moor form around in 2008.

"A lot of the home crowd have got to blame themselves," he said. "You can see the players are much more nervous playing at home, even more so if they go a goal behind, because there are a section of fans who just go to have a moan.

"I know people who don't even go to home games any more because of it. "They just go to away games, and we've created some fantastic atmospheres at places like Barnsley, Leicester and Charlton, where there were 1300 of us.

"Supporters need to go on Turf Moor in a positive frame of mind, boost the atmosphere and get behind the team 100 per cent."