STEVE Cotterill was disappointed that his Burnley side couldn't give Sheffield United's fans more ammunition to fire at their players.

Blade boss Neil Warnock's programme notes called on the Bramall Lane faithful to stop having a go at their team in the run-in towards a finish in the play-off positions.

He said that jeering mistakes would only hamper their ambitions to finish in the top six, which they entered on Saturday after the 2-0 win over the Clarets.

But his words would have fallen on deaf ears if Burnley had put away the early succession of chances they created in an encouraging first half performance.

However, Cotterill watched in agony as his players failed to intensify the potential feud between manager and fans before Alan Quinn scored the opening goal in the 29th minute.

"Goals change games," said Cotterill. "If we had taken our chances in the first half we could have scored four goal quite easily. But we didn't take them, they go and get one and it's a different game.

"We should have been 3-0 up before they scored their first then we had another great chance after it and could have gone in 4-1 up. If you do that it's game over, especially here at the moment.

"You read Neil's programme notes and it seems that the crowd might be getting a bit edgy towards a few of the players.

"So if that happens tension creeps in to your game but as soon as you score a goal it enables them to relax. If you let them relax they have some good players."

A mistake by Brian Jensen gave Quinn the chance to open the scoring after he flapped at a cross.

Then a disjointed back line allowed Andy Gray to sneak through and make it 2-0 in the 49th minute.

Although Cotterill refused to point the finger at individuals, he couldn't disguise his disappointment, especially with the defending for Gray's winner.

He said: "I very rarely blame individuals. There will be individual mistakes all season because they're all human.

"All season the back four have come out from a goal kick and today Gary Cahill, who has been magnificent for us, probably comes out a little bit off centre to the others and it always leaves a crack.

"We don't come up and play offside from a goal kick, we just come up in a line so there's no cracks. If the ball comes straight back down your throat, you can normally deal with it.

"But when the ball goes through to the lad Gary and Frank (Sinclair) don't know whether they've played him offside, but my gut feeling tells me that we've played him onside.

"And then after their second goal it's another completely different game again and our goal was nothing more than a consolation."