Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory seemed a depressingly appropriate way to conclude a bad week for Clarets supporters.

It began with the much-anticipated publication of the club’s accounts.

They were never going to make for comfortable reading, but a double-whammy of high wages and crippling interest rates on bank loans, made it difficult to envisage Burnley pushing for a return to the land of milk and honey any time soon.

Whilst everybody’s got the message that the club is skint, the $64,000 question (or rather the £90m question), is how the club has got through so much money so quickly. Sadly, it would take somebody with a keener forensic eye than this writer to tease some meaning from the accounts and provide the answer. The forthcoming AGM promises to be a fiery one.

Hot on the heels of this dispiriting document came the news that Paul Fletcher will stand down at the end of the season. Word has it that his ambition and enthusiasm for the Clarets’ university project is not shared by everybody on the board.

Penniless, potless and soon to be without a chief executive, could the week get any worse? Well, yes.

Having outplayed what looked, on Saturday’s evidence, a mediocre Leeds side, Burnley gifted two goals and three points to Simon Grayson’s men. Having dominated throughout, it was as though the Clarets remembered that they couldn’t defend properly, with Brian Easton acting as benefactor in chief.

It scarcely needs saying that this is not ideal preparation for tonight’s visit to a Birmingham side unbeaten at St Andrew’s this term.

Still, there were positives. The Clarets created plenty of opportunities, Keith Treacy looked like a quality footballer rather than a disinterested spectator and Sam Vokes supplied muscle and presence up top.

Yet for all that, one always sensed that trouble was just around the corner; this time in the form of Robert Snodgrass. The welcome return of Michael Duff and his organisational capabilities helped stiffen the defence, yet it’s clear that reinforcements are required.

The loan window shuts on Friday. Here’s hoping a couple of defenders clamber through it prior to it closing.