STEVE Cotterill has vowed to put his players under the microscope in a bid to get Burnley back to winnning ways.

Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Coventry was the third in succession, leaving the Clarets with just one win in 10 Championship matches since they rose to fifth in the table over Christmas.

And Cotterill promised to scrutinise every position in the coming week as he looks to reverse the downward slide.

The Burnley manager said: "It was obviously disappointing to lose Saturday's game and I thought it was a gutsy performance.

"But we have to look at all areas of the team now and find out where the season is catching up on us a little bit with certain individuals."

The Clarets had just 16 available players at the Ricoh Arena at the weekend, with key defenders John McGreal and Wayne Thomas suspended and midfielder Garreth O'Connor absent with ankle ligament problems.

The versatile Graham Branch then added to the manager's problems by pulling up with a hamstring injury in the first half to be replaced by Danny Karbassiyoon.

Cotterill, who was due to meet chairman Barry Kilby today to continue talks over an extended contract, added: "The lads tried their best with what we had available to us.

"We were missing two centre halves and a right back and we played a young man, Chris McCann, in midfield. I felt they gave their best and we just messed up once for the goal.

"I am not going to slit my wrists because injuries happen and there is nothing we can do about that. But then we thought Danny, there is your opportunity ...!"

Michael Duff provided one positive on an otherwise disappointing day with another solid display alongside skipper Frank Sinclair in his preferred central defensive role.

And Cotterill had special praise for the former Cheltenham stopper, who more than filled the void left by McGreal serving his one-match ban.

He said: "I thought that Michael and Frank were excellent for us. Centre back is probably where Michael wants to play, but unfortunately he hasn't played there because we have John (McGreal), Wayne (Thomas) and Frank.

"I think that goes down as something like our eighth central defensive partnership this season and it has been the story really.

"If you can't stop conceding goals, then you are always putting yourself under major pressure to score them and we knew it was going to be tough back there."