THE decorators are likely to be moving into the away dressing room at the Bescot Stadium this morning to repair the damage caused by Stan Ternent's verbal volley against his players.

If his press conference was anything to go by, he will have had the paint peeling from the walls.

In terms of his Burnley career the last week must rank as six of the worst days he has had. It was strange to think that as Clarets fans woke yesterday morning it was exactly a week earlier they were dreaming of FA Cup glory and a place in the play-offs.

Now the Cup is already a distant memory and the top six looks to be just as far away.

Ternent was in no mood to dissect his team's failings in public, he simply made it clear that the players had not been good enough.

In contrast his opposite number Colin Lee was more than happy to sit and chat about the game that they were winning well until his keeper James Walker was rightly dismissed for bringing down Gareth Taylor who had been put through by sub Robbie Blake.

By then Burnley were three down and a late rally against ten men was not enough to earn a point they did not deserve and Lee sounded as if he had fancied the win before kick-off.

"I pointed out to the lads that Burnley had conceded 60 league goals before the game," he said. "You need to score goals to win football matches.

"I knew we could not allow the likes of Taylor, Blake and Ian Moore to dictate the game. You need to take them on.

"I actually thought that Little would start today, he is the type of player you have to press quickly because he showed what he can do."

That was reference to the wonderful goal that Little struck in stoppage time to give brief hope that the Clarets might get a point. He, Blake and Steve Davis had been brought on at half time with the side 2-0 down after the switch to 4-5-1 had failed.

To be fair, for the first 20 minutes it looked like by reverting to the system that brought such solid performances over a month long period, the Clarets could get back on track.

They dominated the opening exchanges and Lee conceded: "I saw them at Sheffield and they should have been 1-0 up there. They were also on top against us and they had a good chance but you get periods like that in matches. It took us a while to settle."

That chance was created by Gareth Taylor nodding down Mark McGregor's long ball but Alan Moore failed to find the net when he had only the keeper to beat.

That was in the 14th minute and ten minutes later they were behind. There will be two things that concerned the manager about Jorge Leitao's opener

Firstly Aranalde was given too much time and too much space to put a cross into the danger area and once his cross did drop into the six-yard box Leitao should not have been allowed to head home virtually unchallenged.

And recent history suggested that once they had gone behind, the only way back was if the formation changed.

When the system was bringing rewards, the Clarets never once went behind. They defended one goal leads at Coventry and Stoke, took the lead at Fulham and Millwall and strolled to home wins against Fulham and Derby.

But containing teams is okay so long as you don't go behind, if you are suddenly chasing the game it is hard to find a way back.

It is even harder if you gift your opponents a second goal which is what Burnley, or more accurately keeper Marlon Beresford, did.

He has undoubtedly been one of the best players this season, despite the goals against column that will definitely hurt him.

But he has suffered lapses in the last couple of games, none bigger than the one that he made in the 33rd minute. Lee proudly boasted that they had been practising set-pieces all week and they got their reward but unless they had been planning on the opposition keeper dropping Vinny Samway's corner onto Matt Carbon's boot for him, it was hard to see how the training ground work could take credit.

By now the front pair of Junior and Leitao were rampant and, even after the triple change at the break, it was no surprise they went 3-0 up.

Samways charged down a shot from Paul Cook, his long pass found Leitao and after Beresford made a fine low save to keep out his drive, Pedro Matias was on hand to find the net.

It was effectively game over until the Clarets found a chink of light. Blake remains the most creative player at the club and although he looked a little short of match sharp, having not started a game for the last eight, he did find the pass that sent Taylor galloping clear.

There was no doubt he was brought down by Walker and the red card was the right one leaving Blake to beat sub keeper Gavin Ward for his 13th goal of the season.

With 16 minutes to go there was suddenly hope of an unlikely recovery and Ternent went to his third formation as he sent Davis into attack with just three at the back. But the Walsall defence coped well with any high balls into the box and it was only when Blake and Little combined in stoppage time for the winger to curl in a great left foot shot that Burnley got another back.

There was still time for Davis to chest down one last hopeful hump into the area but Taylor's volley flew over the bar.

Burnley fans had battled through a horrific traffic jam on the M6 to get to the game. As they headed back north they might have been regretting the fact that they finally managed to get there.

Ternent was furious with the display and sitting looking at the bumper of the car in front might have seemed like a better option for some. Burnley's season certainly seems to be going nowhere fast.

WALSALL 3

(Leitao 24, Carbon 33, Matias 66)

BURNLEY 2

(Blake pen 74, Little 90)

Bescot Stadium Att: 6,327