EVERY footballer, from every level, suffers a crisis of confidence.

Even players at the very top of their profession.

Take Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas, for example. The young Spaniard recalled one game he played alongside Patrick Vieira, after which he needed counselling from the influential midfielder.

"I had an absolute stinker," he said. "I was giving the ball away, I wasn't getting involved. After the game I was upset. Vieira came up to me and I'll never forget his words.

"He said that what mattered was giving 100 per cent, knowing that you might not get 100 per cent back from your performance, and that I shouldn't worry and beat myself up over it, but continue working hard."

Hard work is always to the fore of Burnley's ethos, but most notably in their efforts to curb their winless run.

Frustratingly, in the last three months, it hasn't been enough, either as a team in terms of results or, like Fabrgeas, as individuals.

Clarets manager Steve Cotterill admitted that, as a result, he made some "big decisions" for last week's game at Colchester in dropping Jon Harley to the bench and leaving Steve Jones out of the 16-man squad.

Michael Duff found himself out of the starting line-up too, although played his part in securing a valuable point when he was introduced in the first-half for the injured Wayne Thomas, seems to have had the burden of responsibility lifted off him since the captaincy was handed over to Steven Caldwell, encouraging the defender to focus more on his own performance.

And Cotterill has praised the way the players affected by recent changes have responded for the betterment of the team.

"We've found, over the last few games, that people have been hitting us with diagonal balls, and, no disrespect, but that's because Jon Harley is the smallest out of the back four," said Cotterill, ahead of tomorrow's home game against Crystal Palace. "We wanted to shore that area up a bit, which we can with Chris McCann.

"Jon's full of energy and running, but we felt a few goals had come from that area lately that we were a bit disappointed with, so I had a good word with Jon before I left him out, because I think it's the first time I've had to leave him out.

"Those players that are established and do it most weeks for you can get bogged down, so I had a chat with him and said what I was doing, that I needed to take him away from it, and he agreed.

"That's the type of kid he is, he's a good lad, and he said he wanted to get his head down and do his best to get back in the team.

"It was a fantastic reaction, and also from Chris, who went in there and played very well.

"Times like this galvanise you a little bit. When you're winning, it's easy to have a good team spirit, and the test is when you're not winning.

"What is the spirit like then? Are they still receptive to new ideas? And they all are.

"There's not one who you think is perhaps not with it."

He added: "Players are very habitual, and when they're in the groove of winning, as we saw earlier in the season, no-one could have predicted this type of run.

"We were the last unbeaten team in the Championship away from home, and all thought things might kick on.

"But the players are human, and trying to churn out top performances, like they were earlier in the season, is difficult.

"Even the top players can't always do that, so that's when we have a problem.

"You persevere with the players who are playing well for you, but you might be doing them an injustice.

"You don't know until you've worked with them for nearly a year, so the Steve Joneses of this world I would have left out earlier had I known he couldn't get himself out of that rut.

"But there's lot of other things, loss of form, players looking tired, leggy - Michael Duff has been the same, even when he was at centre half before he went to right back.

"His form had dipped a touch, and he was magnificent for the first six months of the season.

"He needed a break, and hadn't had one. He's been away on every Northern Ireland international, and played in all of them.

"Should Michael come back in, he will have a bit of freshness.

"When he came on on Saturday he was first class, he looked determined, but you need to give them the edge.

"But players all have lives, children and there's lots of things I can't open up to the public.

"There are other issues, and sometimes people don't know the whole story, and try and put it down to a bust-up between the player and manager.

"It's a load of rubbish that.

"Very rarely do I have any bust-ups with players, and, all in all, they are a really good spirited bunch.

"The spirit hasn't changed since the first hill at Towneley, the first 120 game in Italy, to now.

"It was excellent then, and it's excellent now."