Pete Oliver's end-of-season report

THE fact that only three players who started Burnley's first game of the season were in the side that beat Plymouth to stay up on the last tells its own story.

And with Chris Waddle using a total of 32 players in League games it's apparent that it took too long to find a successful formula.

Much of the damage had been done by a disastrous run up to Christmas which saw the Clarets win only four times in the Second Division and go out of the Coca Cola and FA Cups with just a win over Lincoln City to show from the two competitions.

At the half-way stage of the season, Burnley had the fewest victories in the division - which was always liable to make it a battle for survival between then and Saturday.

The Clarets won and lost nine of their subsequent games and drew five which took their battle for survival right to the wire.

And in the end their home form kept them up, although they could have breathed more easily if they had won games against Brentford, Luton and Blackpool when they held the whip hand. Although Waddle alternated between a 5-3-2 formation and a 4-4-2 line-up, he stuck largely to the same nucleus of players for the run-in which gives genuine cause for optimism for next season.

Crucially, he included in that reduced pool Glen Little and Andy Payton, whose capture in exchange for Paul Barnes must go down as one of the shrewdest 'buys' of the season.

Payton responded with 12 goals, including the winners against Fulham, Bristol City, Northampton, Grimsby and Southend.

While he and Andy Cooke didn't always look a natural partnership, they scored a total of 32 goals between them which made Burnley a potent force when it most mattered. Little's exclusion from the starting line-up until January proved to be a glaring omission and Burnley will automatically start next season a better team for having him in it.

There are bound to be substantial offers for Little in the summer but he said, after helping the Clarets secure their Second Division safety Saturday's win over Plymouth, that he is no rush to leave.

Burnley did bolster their coffers this season with the deadline day sale of Marlon Beresford to Middlesbrough for £400,000 which allowed the value of another of Waddle's better bits of transfer business to come to the fore.

Beresford has not been missed thanks to the form of Chris Woods who proved he wasn't just along for the ride with some crucial contributions.

The Clarets showed they could compete with the best by beating every top six side except Bristol Rovers and Waddle will be striving over the summer to add the ingredients he needs to produce a more consistent side.

Waddle's own future has been under a cloud with the takeover looming in the background.

But he should now be given the go-ahead to sign the players he needs and keep the ones who have a role to play.

John Mullin is top of the wanted list and proved during his six-game loan spell before suspension that he will provide an extra cutting edge. A fit-again Paul Smith will also be like a new signing given his wretched luck with injuries this season.

With the front and wide positions taken care of, reinforcements are needed to add competition in the middle of midfield and to possibly stiffen up the defence.

But, with Chris Brass and Mark Winstanley both preferring to play in the middle, it might be more a case of finding the right combinations at the back with a left sided player added to the equation.

Waddle admits he has learned a lot in his first season in management and in hindsight it was perhaps expecting too much for him to live up to the hype that surrounded his appointment.

The anticipation will be no less great for his second campaign but he should be in a better position to deliver.

Manchester City will certainly provide more attractive opposition than Hartlepool and, given the right infusion of fresh talent, Burnley should be concentrating on the right end of the table after a season to forget.

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