Steve Cotterill fears that Burnley could be easy prey again next season if richer rivals swoop for his star players.

The battle-hardened Clarets boss has seen the record sales of Robbie Blake and Ade Akinbiyi wreck his play off plans for two seasons running.

And after earning a 17th place Championship finish following yesterday's 1-1 draw with Luton Town, Cotterill insisted he could issue no guarantees for the future.

He said: "It has been a difficult season of chopping and changing and if you are not stable it is very difficult. But I don't know if we will ever be any different here.

"In 12 months time, if someone wants to come along and buy the likes of Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Andy Gray or Alan Mahon and the money is right, I wouldn't say, hand on heart that we could keep them.

"That's the difficult part of it because you never build, but that is the financial predicament we are in and it is reality so we probably just have to do our best with what we have."

Cotterill can at least concentrate on team strengthening this summer after Graham Branch, the only player out of contract, agreed a new one-year deal.

He said: "When I first came here there were eight players and the following summer we ended up with nine.

"We are not in that predicament this year, which may make it a little bit easier, but even though the season is over now I don't think you ever get an opportunity to switch off.

"As a manager you always have to have your ear to the ground or your phone to your ear, so I don;t think I will be any different.

"We don't have the games now and we don't have the training, but there are still quite a few other things to do over the summer."

Kyle Lafferty's first senior goal for Burnley yesterday brought the curtain down on the campaign after Rowan Vine handed the Hatters a first half lead.

However, but for an inspired performance from former Burnley goalkeeper Marlon Beresford, the Clarets could easily have ended the season on a high.

Cotterill insisted: "That certainly wasn't an end of season game and I thought both teams tried desperately hard to win the game.

It certainly wasn't the drab affair of last week at Millwall and I am really disappointed we haven't won it because we created enough chances.

"Their goalkeeper was the top man, which says it all. I thought he shaded it over a few of our players and that always tells a tale."

Cotterill also revealed that ever-present defender Jon Harley almost missed the game after a mystery virus the left back suffers from flared up in the build up to kick off.

He explained: "Jon picks up this allergic reaction and it catches up with him from time to time and his ears, nose and his eyes swell up.

"Before the game he was on the bed and we had no idea if we could play him.

"He was feeling faint and if you had seen him before the game he looked like something out of a scary movie, so in the end he has done fantastically well to get out on the pitch."

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