The joy and the euphoria of beating Owen Coyle’s Bolton a week ago has well and truly disappeared after a woeful showing at Huddersfield on Saturday.

With close to 4,000 Clarets fans grabbing their passports and making their way over the Pennines, it should have been like a home game for Eddie Howe’s side.

It wasn’t and those fans trudged back home disappointed and, in some cases, furious.

As a football fan, you can just about accept being beaten by a better side. What you cannot accept is a defeat when there is a lack of desire to win.

I said after Tuesday night’s defeat at Middlesbrough – where we were beaten by three excellent strikes – that the level of performance last Saturday was always going to be difficult to maintain.

That, and Boro is a tough place to go.

I expected so much more at the John Smiths Stadium.

There is no doubt that Eddie Howe is still trying to shape his team and should be cut some slack.

But when the level of performance is the complete opposite of what we saw at the Turf then major changes need to be made.

He looks to have spent wisely in the summer but he needs to use those players and play to their strengths.

Playing Sam Vokes and Charlie Austin together isn’t working and if Howe is to snap up any more players before the transfer window ‘slams’ shut then a forward needs to be the priority.

The talk on Saturday night though was that his hands appear tied with rumours of the cash windfall from Steven Fletcher’s move to Sunderland being swallowed up to plug gaps in the finance.

There has been no official word but if that is the case then he’ll have to be clever in the loan market.

Despite conceding five goals in the last two games – although there is plenty of debate over whether Huddersfield’s first actually crossed the line – I don’t think the back five is in too bad a shape.

Lee Grant really hasn’t done much wrong and the defenders in front of him certainly look a lot more assured than the back four of last season.

The problem appears to be a lack of defending from the front and a very pedestrian midfield at times.

I said last week that one swallow does not make a spring and I think that still rings true here.

Players like Chris McCann and Dean Marney don’t suddenly lose ability over night but it is baffling when you analyse the differences between the performances.

If Brian Stock is fit then Howe needs to use him because we were out-muscled by a fairly average side on Saturday and it was clear from very early on that that was the case.

We are only three games into the season and we have three points on the board so it is by no means a disaster.

But Howe needs to be brave and drop players who are not performing rather than stick with what he knows.

A lack of plan B was what former boss Owen Coyle suffered from both during his time with us and, subsequently, at Bolton.

I just hope Howe has a plan B because the performance at Huddersfield was far from good enough.

There is a chance to get straight back into the groove tomorrow night at home to Plymouth in the Capital One Cup and if I was the Clarets’ boss then I’d be making wholesale changes to send out a message to those under performing.

In much the same way that the win over Bolton did not guarantee a good season, Saturday’s performance and result should not be seen as an indication that we are going to struggle.

We need to keep the faith.