IN the current financial climate, Football League clubs have been scrapping around for crumbs of comfort like sparrows looking for tit-bits in a frozen winter garden.

So it is rare that the Clarets have been able to celebrate a good week with not one, but two bits of bright money news.

There is no doubt that the handout from the Premiership and FA that will total £664,000 by the start of next season is a massive boost, anyone can see that.

But, on the face of it, the fact that the club lost £159,000 in the last financial year might not look so great. However if that sum is contrasted with the £2.1million they lost in the previous 12 months, it shows that they have been moving in the right direction.

That said, even with the latest cash injection coming on top of collecting more than £400,000 from the Worthington Cup ties against Spurs and United, Father Christmas is as likely to leave a Ferrari at my front drive as Stan Ternent is to be able to sign any new players.

If you are looking for a game to play over the Christmas period, try finding another first division club that has not either signed or loaned a player this season. And if you can think of one, answers on a postcard please.

Okay, Marlon Beresford has technically been signed on four separate monthly contracts but that whole deal is off-set by the fact that Nik Michopoulos has been loaned out to Crystal Palace for virtually the whole of the time.

But while Portsmouth have taken Steve Stone, Wolves Carlton Cole, Grimsby and Sheffield United Steve Kabba, Ternent's player pool is stagnant.

In fact, he saw it shrink by six at the start of the summer and the annual report released on Monday warned that, rather than players coming in, some will be allowed to leave if the price is right.

Fortunately for Ternent, few of his fellow managers can afford to come on down.

Mind you, in the light of events in Burnley town centre at the weekend, struggling along with a paper-thin squad looks like minor.

It is for that reason that I would like to pass on my sympathies to the family of 17-year-old Nathan Shaw. With the legal process well underway there is nothing I can write about allegations surrounding his tragic death.

Suffice to say no teenager should die in a town centre a couple of hours before a football match. Come to that, as town centre violence can occur at any time of the day or night, it should not happen at all.

It had been such a good week for the Clarets on the field. An impressive display against United, a vital victory against high-flying Forest and the genuine belief that a top six spot is there for the taking come New Year.

But all the gloss from the defeat of Forest was removed as initial rumours about an incident eventually proved to be correct. Writing my match report it was hard not to reflect on the fact that in the great scheme of things, the result did not matter. Bill Shankly is repeatedly quoted as saying football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important.

Well, as passionate as we can all feel about it, it is not. It never has been and it never will be.