IT'S great to see John McGreal back in the heart of the Burnley defence.

It was a much improved performance on Saturday against Crystal Palace - from individuals and the team - and McGreal, given his opportunity for the suspended Wayne Thomas, was immense . It's just a pity he had to leave the field injured at half time.

There has been a lot of talk about the big centre half in recent weeks. He hasn't even featured on the bench in some of the opening games of the season and his former manager Jim Magilton was rumoured to want him back at Ipswich.

But I think he's too big an asset to lose, especially at this time in the season where the prospects are looking good for the club.

His 45 minutes on Saturday proved that he is the number one centre half at Burnley. And, in my opinion, he has been the number one since Steve brought him to the club. His experience is terrific and he's very commanding at the back.

As far as I'm concerned he's got everything.

I think something must have happened there between the player and the club, but hopefully all that's been sorted out. And hopefully John can recover from his injury in time for the next two home games.

It was a good point at Selhurst Park, especially after the two previous poor performances.

Now we've got a break for the internationals followed by two games at Turf Moor, and we've got to make sure we take maximum points from them both to get us back up near the top again.

On paper, Colchester and Barnsley at home are games we should be doing well in. But these are the matches, over the years, where Burnley have come unstuck.

We've got to make sure we take the bull by the horns and get all the points. It's no good looking for anything else - we've got to win our home games and that's it.

The performances of the players had fallen from what we had shown at the start of the season, but expectations have been raised again after Palace and it's up to the players to live up to those expectations, starting with Colchester.