A VISIT to Vicarage Road might seem a sobering thought for many Burnley fans tonight, but for Stan Ternent the hangover has long since cleared.

Burnley will be back at the scene of last season's FA Cup quarter-final, the match that signalled a dramatic downturn in their fortunes following Watford's 2-0 victory.

But although the subsequent run of results sent the Clarets spiralling down Division One and drifting away from a play-off place, Ternent has already well and truly erased the memory of the impact that defeat had on his squad.

With the Hornets now languishing second from bottom in Division One and Burnley flying high in the top half, Ternent has no reason to dread a return to Vicarage Road.

"This is another day," said the Burnley boss. "We will go down there and try to get a result.

"The cup game had a bad effect on us and our season, there's no doubt about that.

"We didn't perform on the day, but neither did they really they just got the first goal and that was the all-important thing.

"But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we got to the last eight of a national competition. That was fantastic for a club of our resources."

The next time the two sides met was almost as disastrous for the Clarets as they slumped to a 7-4 home defeat to Watford just weeks after the cup tie.

The four-goal hero of that game, Michael Chopra, is now back at Newcastle, the club he was on loan from at the the time, but Ternent has long since stopped mulling over that heavy loss.

After all, it was only a couple of weeks later that Ternent slashed his squad to begin a rebuilding programme that is reaping rich rewards this season.

"The 7-4 game was after our season had ended," he said.

"The players knew what was going to happen with the financial implications and it's best forgotten now, as it was at the time.

"Everybody has had to make cutbacks, unless you're Reading, Cardiff or Wigan. Everybody is in a similar situation in the Football League."

Ternent will be hoping to go one better than he did on Saturday, when the only team below Watford in the table, Wimbledon, held them to a 2-2 draw in the first game at the National Hockey Stadium, Milton Keynes.

Two Robbie Blake goals, that took his tally to seven for the season, put Burnley in pole position before David May's sending off paved the way for the Dons to salvage a point.

Ternent said: "I felt that we were in the ascendancy until the decision to send May off and it was frustrating to lose two points.

"But I suppose it's another point to our total. I was hoping it was going to be three, but it wasn't, and we've just got to get on with it now, go down to Watford and get a result there."