GARRETH O'Connor is facing a race against time to give manager Steve Cotterill more options ahead of this weekend's Turf Moor clash with Championship leaders Reading.

The former Bournemouth midfielder aggrevated ankle ligaments early last week, ruling him out of last Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Coventry.

Burnley, who had just 16 players available for their first ever trip to the Ricoh Arena, including teenage striker Kyle Lafferty and apprentice goalkeeper Mark Crossley, slipped to a third successive defeat thanks to a match-winning goal from City striker Dele Adebola.

But with suspended duo John McGreal and Wayne Thomas both back next weekend, boss Cotterill is hopeful that O'Connor can recover to give him more reinforcements to face the runaway Royals.

"Garreth has ankle ligament problems. He did them a week ago now, so he's maybe another week away. We'll just have to wait and see how he is at the start of this week," said Cotterill, who lost Graham Branch to a worrying hamstring injury at the weekend, when the Clarets boss felt his side let another result slip through their grasp.

Adopting a 4-5-1 system, with Michael Ricketts leading the line and looking for support from wide men Graham Branch and John Spicer, the Clarets started brightly before City grasped back the initiative to earn a deserved victory.

"We went for it from the off. Just because you play one man up front doesn't mean the opposite," insisted Cotterill.

"If your wide men get further enough up the pitch, which they should have done - and did at times in the first half - you end up playing 4-3-3.

"Quite often with those three midfield players we can control the game and I felt at stages of the first half against Coventry we had a good grip of things.

"Once you have a grip of the ball you nullify the diagonal balls they kept wanting to put on James Scowcroft's head. They felt he could beat Wade Elliott in the air and they also probably looked at our bench and knew I could do nothing about it.

"That was their weapon because that was the starting point for every one of their attacks."

Cotterill, whose side survived strong appeals for a City penalty in the first half, added: "I don't have any gripes with the officials because I feel that if you can dominate the ball then the officials don't even come into play.

"There was a spell in the first half, when I felt we passed the ball well through midfield, when the referee didn't have to intervene at all.

"So I don't look and think we didn't get the rub of the green, but having said that, if people ask me whether Burnley Football Club have had the rub of the green in the last six weeks, then I'll tell you 'no'."

Finally, Cotterill reserved special praise for teenage midfielder Chris McCann before warning striker Ricketts that, despite looking far fitter than when he first arrived on loan from Leeds a month ago, he had to work harder until the final whistle - or face the harsh consequences.

"Michael is fitter, but he didn't chase enough lost causes," explained Cotterill. "But by the end of the season he will (chase them more), otherwise he will be sat next to me!"