IT is natural, at the end of every season, to cast the mind's eye over the previous nine months.

Yet such has been the nature of season 2002/03 that most Burnley supporters may eschew such daydreaming on the grounds that they do not wish to spend their summer in a deep depression.

Aside from two glorious Cup runs, this has been a bad season. Some stats. The Clarets escaped the drop by just nine points, we leaked 89 goals along the way -- only Mansfield in the entire Football League had a more embarrassing goals against column.

Twice we were hit for six. Twice the opposition went seven up. In retrospect, shipping five against Reading almost seemed like a good day.

Looking at the final Division One table, the epitaph for the season just gone would read, "Burnley -- Not Quite As Good as Rotherham."

Add to that the constant bleating about ITV Digital and the growing feeling in the town that Glen Little has played his last game for the club and you begin to get some idea of why season ticket sales are down on last year.

Mitigating circumstances? The collapse of you know who seems to have hit the Clarets harder than most. Certainly Ternent has not been allowed to freshen up the squad in the way he would have liked -- only Diallo and Beresford arrived on loan.

As a consequence, it became as clear as polished glass that as the season wore on the manager was struggling to lift the same old players with the same old words.

Hope lies in the fact that Ternent will finally have some room to manoeuvre over the summer. With 13 salaries chopped off the wage bill and footballers beginning to realise the gravy train does not call at Division One these days, the manager can finally start to rebuild.

To what extent will become clear in the next couple of months.

But for now, it's time to dish out the awards. P

layer of the Season -- the immense Gareth Taylor, the finest header of the ball in the division and Burnley's best defender and attacker.

Most Improved Player -- Graham Branch. He rode out the boo-boy storm to become a by word for reliability and consistency.

Goal of the Season -- Glen Little at Hillsborough. For heaven's sake, bring him home and build the team around him and Blake.

Young Player of the Season -- a dead heat between O'Neill and Chaplow.

Belly Laugh of the Season -- Rovers in Europe (watch out for more autumnal comedy later this year).

And finally, Chant of the Season -- "Preston, Preston, you are next" as Watford scored their seventh.

Gallows humour at its finest. Enjoy the summer, see you next season.