In the second half we weren't at the races

Stan also thought his side should have won but was eventually happy with a point as the Clarets came back late to win a point.

On the substitutions Stan added, "Robbie is still feeling his stomach strain, I have to hold my hands up for that one because I had to change it. Tony Grant was feeling his hamstring, so he had to come off and we changed the system. They changed to a 4-5-1 as well and we were left a little over-run in the middle of the park".

INSTEAD of displaying surprise and dismay at their team's recent form, one league win from the past nine, Burnley fans should be grateful that this collection of misfits and journeymen should have played so consistently above themselves for such a goodly portion of the season.

Even though the one-time leaders of the division are now seven points behind the front-runners, Manchester City, they still lie fifth, four points clear of Coventry City in seventh.

Stan Ternent, their manager, began this match with a 4-5-1 formation, leaving Gareth Taylor up front as the sole striker. Nottingham Forest quickly conceded ground and Burnley should have had sealed the points by half-time, with Taylor being particularly profligate.

Ternent brought on Robbie Blake at half-time before, bizarrely, substituting him 20 minutes later. Forest, clearly intent on not being confused, again went ahead on 69 minutes with the lively Marlon Harewood converting a penalty after being tripped by the otherwise impressive Arthur Gnohere. Gnohere redeemed himself with two minutes to go by heading the equaliser.

Ternent afterwards claimed to be happy with the point. However, with two new attacking players at his disposal in Blake and Ian Moore, Ternent will be hoping that he can mix things up again and bemuse his way into the play-offs.

BURNLEY manager Stan Ternent expressed relief and frustration in extracting a crucial point from an encounter his side appeared likely to lose.

Burnley have not won at home in the league since mid-December but Ternent looks to tomorrow night's visit of Bradford City as a possible turning point for the lack of home success.

After a game in which both sides contributed splendidly with an abundance of opportunities, he said: "If we can reproduce the first-half performance against Forest and convert our chances, we will be fine.

"It is frustrating because we are not converting them as we did earlier in the season. All you can do is keep paddling away and continue making them."

Ternent's relief came at seeing Arthur Gnohere, his young central defender from the Ivory Coast, head the late equaliser after earlier conceding the penalty when bringing down Marlon Harewood who tucked away the award.

Equally, Gnohere had splendidly denied Harewood who had accepted a long ball from Andy Reid to round the home goalkeeper, Marlon Beresford, shortly before the interval.

Forest created as many openings as Burnley who dropped their guard marginally after the break following first-half domination. In that early period of home ascendancy Gareth Taylor squandered numerous headed opportunities while Harewood was equally profligate during the visitors' second-half monopoly.

Arthur Gnohéré headed home two minutes from time to wipe out the penalty he had conceded and salvage a draw from a Burnley performance that did not look much like the stuff of successful promotion campaigns.

The defender was central to several of the key moments in a match from which Nottingham Forest, losing their better players on a weekly basis, took the more credit. Only his alert work kept Marlon Harewood, one of the bright young players in whom Forest have invested their future hopes, out until the moment midway through the second half when he clipped his heels.

Harewood had shown his pace and strength by beating Ian Cox on the left touchline and, after he had picked himself up from Gnohéré's challenge, put away the penalty without fuss.

Frustration deepened at Turf Moor with that goal and no wonder. First Division leaders at the turn of the year, Burnley have now won just one of their last nine in the League. They did finally get something from this one, however, when Gnohéré got his head to Lee Briscoe's free-kick and managed to sneak the ball low past Darren Ward into the corner of the net.

Burnley had started brightly enough, with Forest struggling to contain their aerial threat, but their best chance went begging when Gareth Taylor headed wide of an open goal when Briscoe's cross found him unmarked.

Times have been tough for an asset-stripped Forest, but the way they fought their way back into the game by half-time spoke volumes for their spirit. In the last 10 minutes of the half, they were by far the more dangerous team, with Jack Lester shooting weakly when put through by Andy Reid, Gnohéré making a goal-saving tackle on Harewood and then the lone striker lunging at Lester's cross but putting it high.

Marlon Beresford had to save splendidly from Reid's close-range volley at the start of the second half, before Burnley threatened to assert themselves once more. The otherwise subdued Glen Little ended a burst of juggling with a shot deflected off target, Cox had a header brilliantly saved and Paul Weller's terrific run was wasted by Robbie Blake's cross.

Harewood was denied by Beresford before his penalty and overall it was Forest who can take the more encouragement. "With the chances we created we should have had a couple more goals,'' said their manager, Paul Hart.