STEVE Cotterill hailed Darren Bent as 'Premiership class' after his two goals helped Ipswich beat injury-ravaged Burnley.

The England U21 striker struck in each half as Town, who have now scored in a club record 30 consecutive league games, continued their march towards a top-flight return.

And Clarets boss Cotterill insisted: "The difference was Bent!

"We were undone by two fantastic goals from a wonderful, wonderful player and it will be our luck now that he will probably go to the Premiership in the transfer window.

"He didn't go last summer but he is a Premiership player, without a shadow of a doubt.

"He stretches teams and there is no point in trying to squeeze him up because he is just too quick.

"But the other thing about him is he shuts down full backs. He is not too big that he's not going to work hard for his team and that work rate will get noticed too.

"But all credit to Ipswich and I take my hat off to them. They are a good side who have a little bit of everything and we can't cope with that at the moment."

Cotterill was without five first team regulars for Town's visit, with Danny Coyne, Richard Chaplow and Ian Moore all long-term absentees.

Jean-Louis Valois was also absent with a hamstring injury, while Michael Duff served a one-match suspension that further limited the manager's options.

And when Frank Sinclair pulled up with a calf injury after only seven minutes - with John McGreal and Graham Branch both playing while carrying injuries - the Clarets squad was decimated to an extent that four players ended up playing out of position.

Cotterill insisted: "John and Graham did fantastically well to play because I probably shouldn't have played either.

"They both ended up playing centre back and I still don't know how they got out there.

"I took a look at John's ankle at five-to-two and I thought he would do well to last five minutes.

"It's a major credit to him and although he probably didn't do himself justice because of the high standards he sets himself, he did me and his team mates proud by getting the kit on.

He added: "Frank's calf tightened up within minutes of kick off and he knew he had to come off otherwise it was potentially six weeks out if he pulls the calf.

"He went off and with Chaplow, Moore, Coyne and Valois all missing, we just can't cope.

"It's too much and this was one game too far this week, this month - whatever you want to call it.

"We can't deal with it and we are just going to have to try to deal with these disappointments from time to time."

"None of the supporters got on the players backs and we need that - but they are not silly.

"They can see the lads are giving their all and there was not one player letting anyone down.

"Some might have played better, but we are all human and that happens. Some days we just don't do things as well as other days."