BURNLEY versus Swansea City; a drab and dull affair under dismal, dreary skies.

Afternoons like this were not really what the claret and blue faithful envisaged, when Ashley Barnes and Michael Kightly put Wigan Athletic to the sword under brilliant blue April skies, to deliver us to the land of milk and honey.

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It was bleakly appropriate that this scruffy and ugly contest was decided by a scruffy and ugly goal; Kieran Trippier and Tom Heaton, unwitting and hapless accomplices to the game’s tragi-comic defining moment, with the Swans merely the latest beneficiaries of our charitable approach to defending corners.

“It’s a real sickening goal, if I’m honest” lamented Sean Dyche, his comments seasoned with more than a soupcon of understatement.

“We continue work on the training ground, continue work for the players to be alive in them areas.”

Yet it would be inaccurate to pin all the blame for Saturday’s disappointment on feeble resistance in the 64th minute.

Despite contriving to put ourselves in arrears, there was still a good half hour of the game remaining - plenty of time (at least theoretically) for a rethink, a recalibration and a renewed assault on the opposition goal.

That such a revitalisation never really occurred was almost exclusively down to the club’s abject performance in this season’s transfer windows.

When the manager turned to his bench to try and see how the Clarets might best force their way back into the encounter, his options consisted of; a goalkeeper, a left-back returning from injury, a 37-year-old centre-half, a right-back whose only start for the club came last September, a winger who has been much more miss than hit during his time at Turf Moor, a striker without a league start since March 2014 and another forward without a goal in 19 appearances. Not many game-changers there.

In fairness to Sam Vokes, the 25-year-old did all that could have been reasonably expected of him in his quarter-hour cameo, narrowly missing out with a near-post clip and bringing a challenge from Neil Taylor which everyone bar referee Moss could see was a clear penalty. It was just a shame (and an oversight) that reinforcements of equal potency were not available to the manager to force the issue.

The task does not get any easier.

Burnley must travel to an expectant Anfield tomorrow evening to face a Liverpool side with designs on Champions League qualification.

The general perception is that the Clarets have performed well against the bigger sides. But what we need right now isn’t a performance. What we need is points.