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I'd heard the team news on the Friday night which saw Andre Bikey, Marvin Bartley and Wade Elliott come in for Michael Duff, Dean Marney and Nathan Delfouneso. I was also aware that one of the development squad was travelling and that turned out to be Dominic Knowles.
Brizzle had brought spring with it as the coats were ditched in the warmer weather; the Wurzels were in full voice over the PA and I had that confident feeling that the day was going to take a big turn for the better.
Just a few minutes in and I was thinking better of it. Elliott had headed an effort off the line, home winger Albert Adomah, without doubt the game's best player, had skinned Bartley down their right and overall we could be pleased to still be level even so early in the game.
It's worth noting at this point that, after that early involvement from Bartley I would struggle to find another word of criticism. It was a good debut when his only real problem was finding much support around him.
In the middle of all that, Danny Fox was yellow carded by the referee, who I believe to be Mark Brown and not Andy Haines as advertised. It was a soft booking and will now mean Fox misses the next two games against Ipswich and Leicester.
Then Bikey got a back header wrong and was thankful to see it go wide of goal, but we survived the early onslaught and started to put things together ourselves. Ross Wallace was at the centre of most of our better play. He'd started on the right but switched with Chris Eagles who himself was back in a wide role in this game.
Eagles put a shot straight into the hands of David James who did well to save from Wallace soon after. He was also quick to get down to prevent Bartley getting a shot in.
The early part of the game had been forgotten and we looked all set to go in at half time level when disaster struck. The ball was played out to Adomah who got in a quick cross before Fox could close him down. Clarke Carlisle completely missed his header and that left Brett Pitman to fire home.
Goals just before half time can be a killer and there was certainly no time to get back at them before the half time whistle blew.
The early stages of the second half were concerning and we were fortunate not to have conceded again. Bikey was looking anything but secure back in the defence and almost presented them with a second. Then Nicky Maynard hit a shot across goal and there was no sign of us coming into the game at all.
Eventually we did, and for some time we dominated the game. But the build up was slow and one paced. There was absolutely no tempo to our game and we were not prepared to commit men forward. More than once, with an opportunity to get the ball into the Bristol City box, we found we'd only one player in there with no one showing the desire or willingness to follow.
If you are going to score goals then you have to sometimes take a gamble but Burnley were just dominated possession whilst looking no more than hopeful that a goal might come. I can't recall causing James any problems whatsoever.
Still, the home side weren't in the game at all and Eddie Howe made two changes as first Nathan Delfouneso and then Chris Iwelumo were introduced. There looked a clear penalty as Bartley was held in the box but it was a case of nothing doing.
Then disaster struck as we found yet another daft way to give a goal away. This was nothing more than a kick up the pitch that Maynard got onto. He was too quick for the laboured Bikey but that's where the criticism of the central defender ends.
This one was all Carlisle who made a right pig's ear of the back pass leaving Grant absolutely helpless. Maynard couldn't believe his luck. 2-0 and game over.
We had plenty of the possession again in the last 20 minutes but the Burnley fans had resigned themselves to what became our heaviest away defeat since Arsenal just over a year ago. We didn't threaten and in fact it was Bristol City who had the ball in the net again only to see it disallowed.
Grant made a couple of good saves and right at the end they just missed the target but that was it, a 2-0 defeat and one where we could have no complaints whatsoever.
Keith Millen said it was one of their best performances. If so, they are a poor side because they weren't that good at all, Adomah apart. We were very disappointing though and if there are many more performances like this then we can forget about the play offs, indeed we can forget about getting anywhere near them.
There was no urgency, no real desire and no real commitment and once again we looked extremely vulnerable at the back every time they went forward. We got exactly what we deserved. It has to be better than this and we really do have to stop gifting goals to the opposition. We've conceded seven in the last eight days and too many of them have been through very bad mistakes and poor defending.
Bartley was the one real positive. I was impressed with him. He's got some pace, he showed a great commitment. At times he kept things very simple but he hardly gave the ball away. What a pity there weren't others offering the same to this performance.
We've got a two week break now. We have to come back refreshed, with our without loan recruits, and we've got to give it a really good go in the last nine games. The consolation yesterday was that the top six again didn't have a very good day. We aren't too much further behind. We've got to keep going and who knows?
The teams yesterday were;
Bristol City: David James, Jordan Spence, Steven Caulker, Damion Stewart, Lewin Nyatanga, Albert Adomah, Khalifa Cisse (Lee Johnson 38),Marvin Elliott, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Brett Pitman (Andy Keogh 90+1), Nicky Maynard. Subs not used: Dean Gerken, Christian Ribeiro, Joe Edwards, Martyn Woolford, David Clarkson.
Yellow Cards: Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Damion Stewart.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Jack Cork (Nathan Delfouneso 62), Marvin Bartley, Ross Wallace (Chris Iwelumo 68), Wade Elliott (Graham Alexander 90+2), Chris Eagles, Jay Rodriguez. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Michael Duff, Brian Easton.
Yellow Cards: Danny Fox, Tyrone Mears, Jay Rodriguez, Clarke Carlisle.
Referee: Mark Brown (East Yorkshire).
Attendance: 14,360 (including 1,172 Clarets).