CLARETS boss Steve Cotterill believes he is two or three players short of assembling a "strong" Championship team.

As Burnley head to Stoke tomorrow, aiming to maintain their unbeaten away record and improve on an impressive sixth position in the league, Cotterill insists there is room for improvement in his squad.

Andy Gray, Alan Mahon, Steve Jones and Steve Foster made summer moves to Turf Moor, while Duane Courtney and Danny Karbassiyoon's contracts were terminated earlier this term, leaving Cotterill with 20 players at his disposal.

Limited finances restrict further additions, but Cotterill admits a sprinkling of new faces could present him with a formidable side.

"We're not far away from being a good team," said Cotterill. "But if you look at us at a stage last year we weren't far away from being a good team.

"Every manager will say he's always a couple of players short.

"But I think we are and I will underline mine.

"Anybody can say when they've got a big squad, they are two players short. We are a couple short, maybe three, which could make us quite strong.

FROM BACK PAGE "When I think of strengthening, it is the team and not so much the squad, because if you strengthen the team, you strengthen the squad anyway.

"Anyone can strengthen their squad by getting another two or three bodies. But that does not necessairily strengthen the team."

Cotterill returns to Stoke - one of his former managerial outposts - hoping for strong officials after delivering a few harsh words to referees Ray Olivier and Gary Sutton.

Olivier and Sutton were respective men in the middle during Burnley's Turf Moor tussles against Colchester and Barnsley, in which both visiting teams fell and stayed to the ground too often.

Cotterill said: "What marred the two games we've played is the time it took players to get off the floor. That is a disturbing thing for me at the moment.

"I think it's to try and disrupt our rhythm. Ray Olivier is normally a decent referee but, in the first game, I thought he fell for a few tricks.

"The referee we had the other night was the poorest we've had this season. He got mugged left, right and centre with everything.

"If a player is genuinely injured, then we will kick the ball out of play.

"But the other night and Saturday, it went on so many times that our lads got a bit fed up with it in the end."

Neal Trotman, captain of the Burnley youth team that reached the Alliance Cup final in April 2005, has signed a contract until the rest of the season with League One side Oldham.