Leicester City 0 Burnley 0

STEVE Cotterill has ensured away days with the Clarets are much less exciting than they used to be - and the fans must be delighted.

Not too long ago Burnley's travelling supporters would be treated to goal feasts - the debacles at Blundell Park and Deepdale spring to mind - but would see their side come away with nothing in terms of points.

Enter Cotterill and with him his twin towers of dependability at the back - Frank Sinclair and John McGreal.

They may not be the most elegant of defensive pairings, but they are rapidly proving to be one of the most efficient in a Coca-Cola Championship where an ability to deny other sides chances will gain a tangible return in terms of points.

And so it was at the Walkers Stadium with former Premiership outfit Leicester being exposed as having nothing approaching the guile necessary to break down the Clarets' tidy and organised defence.

The miserly Clarets set out their stall in the first half hour to frustrate the Foxes and they were certainly successfully.

Rather than managing to come up with any cunning plans or sly manoeuvres, the Foxes became increasingly clueless as the Clarets settled for getting a foot in where it mattered and then clearing their lines.

Admittedly, the Turf Moor side were not much more imaginative going forward themselves, but this was a contest on someone else's turf and by rights it was the home side who should have made the running.

But it was the Clarets who carved out the first clear chance when Robbie Blake's persistence earned Richard Chaplow the chance to shoot and he stretched veteran keeper Kevin Pressman.

The Foxes just couldn't get a sniff in the box and their best early efforts were from range and neither Jordan Stewart, with two efforts, or Jamie Scowcroft could find hit the target.

Blake had a shot blocked for a corner, but in a half of dull and over deliberate play the only two clear-cut chances were both created by former Rovers winger Jason Wilcox.

The ex-Ewood man first provided a flick for Scowcroft whose shot stretched Danny Coyne.

The second opportunity was even clearer cut as the winger picked out David Connolly at the back post but even though he controlled the ball well with his first touch, the presence of Coyne and Mo Camara made him pull his shot into the side-netting.

The pattern of the second half proved little different and even the dismissal of Leicester's Jordan Stewart after he appeared to raise an arm in a tangle with Ian Moore, failed to open things up.

The few chances that came were not clear-cut. Blake stretched Pressman once again, while at the other end Lilian Nalis fired well wide from 20 yards.

But in the closing minutes the Clarets could have nicked all three points.

With 15 minutes to go Dion Dublin, who was pressed into service in central defence after Stewart's departure, needlessly tried to head a ball back to Pressman. The keeper was taken by surprise and lost the ball and only just recovered to smother Jean-Louis Valois' attempted to bundle the ball over the line from close range.

And with five minutes remaining, a swift counter-attack from Blake and Moore ended with a cross beating the Foxes defence but also just eluding the diving Graham Branch at the far post.

So there was not too much in the way of goalmouth action to lift either set of fans, but for those heading back to Lancashire there will have been a sense of satisfaction that they know they now have a side who can travel without suffering the sickness of haemorrhaging goals.