PHEW! The roar which went up around three sides of Turf Moor at full time on Saturday was borne as much out of relief as anything else.

Until then it had been six games, 49 days and 540 minutes of football without a win. And you had to go back to late November to find the last time the Clarets scored twice in a league game. It's safe to say we needed the win.

Not that they made it easy. But then, they never do.

There's something about Burnley, and in fact always has been, which prevents them from killing off a game. It's probably a genetic flaw.

And that same flaw would again have been exposed had it not been for some inspired goalkeeping from Nikos Michopolous. The former Greek national keeper does have some doubters in the stands, (your correspondent is not amongst them). One hopes that Saturday's performance will have gone a long way to winning them round.

They were certainly appreciative of his stupendous last-minute save as Isiah Rankin broke free in Burnley's box and threatened to ruin the day, before Nik's razor-sharp reflexes allowed him to palm the ball away to safety.

Hopefully, Nik's heroics have helped to bring the winter of discontent to an end. And with a little luck the improvement can continue at Scunthorpe this evening.

Progression in the cup would be a good thing for any number of reasons. Not least of which being it would no doubt, be a tremendous source of annoyance to the increasingly eccentric Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws. What is this guy on?

First of all came his quote -- laughably divorced from reality -- that had Scunthorpe lost the original tie at Turf Moor it would have been the "crime of the century." And he's absolutely right. The likes of Harold Shipman and his ghoulish legacy are but small beer in comparison to the outcome of a cup game involving "the Iron."

Then last week Brian treated us to yet more outlandish quibbling with his comical suggestion that the referee had called the game off because he caught sight of some Burnley players who "didn't fancy it." So, Bri, nothing to do with a frozen pitch then?

And anyway, since when did the likes of Lennie Johnrose and Kevin Ball -- neither of whom would flinch from a 50-50 with a 10-ton truck -- stop "fancying it." Oh dear, looks like Lawsy has come down with that most common of football illnesses -- Cup Fever.