IT'S taken me all week to get the emotional energy together to write about the Clarets. Such was the impact of Saturday’s devastating loss away at Brentford.

And it was devastating, let’s not tip-toe around this. Our survival hopes look very, very bleak right now and whilst there is still a hope (you will note my use of “hope” rather than “chance” now) of survival, we needed to close the gap on Brentford and drag them back into it.

(Side note: as I write that last sentence, Everton have just scored a last-gasp winner against Newcastle, effectively reducing the relegation battle to us, Watford and Leeds. Sigh).

All of the talk from the game focuses on two issues - why Jack Cork didn’t start and why Maxwel Cornet is getting selected ahead of Jay Rodriguez. The latter baffles me less than the former - we need Maxwel to get fit and sharp and you do that by playing him - but I do not for the life of me understand the Cork decision.

The three games where Cork came back into the side made all the difference to our midfield and allowed Wout Weghorst to plug the gap. Westwood’s constant sideways, backwards, sidewards again manoeuvres frustrate me immensely and he just doesn't gel well enough with Josh Brownhill to make anywhere near a good enough midfield.

If only we’d have known we needed to strengthen when we had the luxury of a transfer window…

We missed Ben Mee. A lot. 

The reality is that we just haven't been good enough all season and we are now clutching at the desperate hope that two other sides will be worse than us.

Our run of fixtures isn't really that bad to be fair, but expecting a side that has won just three times all season to now win five or six in the next 10 is ambitious. Particularly when we have so massively under-performed in those key battles at the bottom of the table, we have looked nervous and lacking in any ruthless edge.

Should Alan Pace have done more in the summer? Does Dyche need to be braver? Do we need a change in formation? Or do we just need a season in the Championship to rebuild? There are just so many questions to answer this year - none of them pretty - and it’s been a battle.

Three weeks off now. We need to use that time wisely, to get players fit and to really think about what we need to do. This is it now. No second chances, no “long way to go yets” and no place to hide.

Up. The. Clarets.