IT would be something of a stretch to describe the weather conditions at Turf Moor last Saturday as balmy, but from somewhere October had contrived to conjure the kind of afternoon which made a mockery of the fact that winter is lurking in the shadows.

It may well have been autumn’s last stand.

Shafts of sunlight spearing the clouds, dappling the distant hills and moors rising behind the Bob Lord Stand.

Little wonder BBC Radio Five Live’s John Murray once described the vista from his commentary perch at the back of the James Hargreaves Upper as his favourite view in football.

MORE TOP STORIES:

On the pitch, Burnley were similarly sunny, taking the game to sexagenarian Sam and his high-flying Hammers.

Most of the meaningful action took place in the visitors’ half.

Danny Ings carried a threat which had been curiously absent in his pre-injury form, Kieran Trippier was unleashed and back to his raiding and rampaging best, and with his deft touches and clever passes, it was easy to see why Burnley had handed over £3m to Hull for George Boyd and his box of tricks.

There were chances. Boyd crashed one off the underside of the bar, while the bullish, brutish Jutkiewicz endured 45 minutes of coming tantalisingly close to opening his Clarets account – a header just off target, a disallowed tap into an empty net and arriving a split-second too late to get a toe to Boyd’s sumptuous pass across Adrian’s six-yard box.

Half time arrived. The sun retired. And within nine minutes of kick-off, so had Burnley’s hopes of a first win.

West Ham went wide. Burnley didn’t. Aaron Creswell was allowed a criminal amount of time and space down the Clarets’ right to plonk the ball on Diafra Sakho’s head.

Five minutes later, Enner Valencia’s conversion of Carl Jenkinson’s cross from Burnley’s left flank provided a mirror-image of West Ham’s opener.

The difference, of course, lay primarily in the finishing.

And without wishing to labour the financial disparity line, it’s valid to note that Valencia and Sakho were recruited for a combined fee approximately 10 times larger than that spent on our own front men. There was nothing wrong with the spirit, as evidenced by Boyd’s goal, Ings’ oh-so-close header which would have levelled matters and Barnes’ blast against the bar, but the worry has to be that Burnley are playing well yet still not winning.

There was a distinct nip in the wind that whistled around Turf Moor at full time.

Winter’s coming.