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On the last day of October, when we beat Hull, we were nice and comfortable in the top half of the Premier League with a healthy seven point gap between us and the relegation positions. By the time we kicked off yesterday we'd dropped to next to bottom and 'relegation' was a word being used far too often.
It's been a hell of a three months and more. We've lost our manager and back room team at the worst time possible, and the new man, Brian Laws, has come in with an opening three games that included both Manchester United and Chelsea, the top two.
He'd told us ahead of yesterday's game just how important it was, but we knew that and just what a pressure game it was against a side that was not too far above us in the table.
There were two changes to the side that had played so well against Chelsea a week earlier, and it saw two of the new faces come in. Left back Danny Fox got a debut at the expense of Christian Kalvenes whilst David Nugent, now finally back with us for the season, replaced Chris Eagles who dropped to the bench.
Fox was to have a very interesting debut indeed whilst Nugent also played a big part in getting that so important win.
West Ham, under the new ownership of David Sullivan (and what on earth was he wearing yesterday?) and David Gold, are apparently £110 million in debt so were unable to do no more than bring in three new strikers in the window, all of them signing last week.
Egyptian Mido and Brazilian Araujo Ilan were on the bench but worryingly Benni McCarthy was starting, worrying because as having signed from Blackburn the response from the home fans would be predictable and that usually leads to a goal.
Whilst both sides made changes there was also a change of referee, and not for the first time this season have we had a late change. Steve Bennett was scheduled to take charge and it was his name in the match programme. Howard Webb was due to referee the Stoke v Blackburn game but for whatever reason they switched and we got Webb.
There was some good news just ahead of kick off when we were able to attack the cricket field end in the first half. I always think it is an unlucky omen to play the other way, as indeed we did last week against Chelsea.
I think we all realised we needed to make a good start, and we did just that. We pushed forward at every opportunity and put the West Ham defence under some early pressure. All it needed was a goal.
And that goal duly came and perhaps we should thank referee Webb for playing the advantage when Andre Bikey fouled Scott Parker as an attack broke down. He gave West Ham the opportunity to keep going but Parker gave the ball away by playing it up to Clarke Carlisle who got the ball across to Fox.
Fox turned with the ball, looked up and played it delightfully down the pitch. Matthew Upson should have dealt with it, but once he'd let it bounce it let Nugent in and as goalkeeper Rob Green came out he lobbed it over him and then turned away in celebration as the ball dropped into the net.
Incredibly we hadn't been in front in a league game since leading 1-0 against Aston Villa in November and for some time West Ham didn't threaten to get back into it. But with Parker again pulling the strings in midfield they did start to ask us some questions and thankfully the chances fell to McCarthy on an off day.
He missed one, opted not to shoot with the next, but when Parker played him in for a third chance he took it round Brian Jensen and stroked it towards the empty net. Brilliantly, Leon Cort got back to clear it off the line to keep us level.
That brought McCarthy's involvement to an end really. He soon after picked up an injury and just about managed to stay on until half time. And we had no further problems but it was with some relief that the half time whistle arrived with us still in front.
Mido came on for the injured McCarthy and hit an early shot wide in what was an even start to the second half. Then Tyrone Mears, Kevin McDonald and Wade Elliott linked up down the right from a thrown in. McDonald played the last ball to Mears who was brought down by Jack Collison down the right hand side of the penalty box.
There was no question of it being a penalty but I remain baffled as to how the West Ham player escaped without a yellow card. Robbie Blake and Fox stood over but it was Fox who took the kick.
More often than not, when a goal is scored, someone is pointed out as being at fault. But as Fox curled the free kick right into the corner beyond Green you were left wondering whether there was anything anyone could have done about it.
We didn't care. Fox rushed to the dug out to celebrate with Laws, his staff and the subs, and was quickly joined by any number of his team mates. 2-0 up, and now surely in with a real chance of ending this run.
It might have been so different a minute later had Parker pulled one back. His shot was heading for the bottom corner to Jensen's left but he got down superbly to push the ball away at the expense of a corner. If there are defining moments in a game then this was very much one.
A goal then and who knows what might have happened. I thought that West Ham might just accept then that it wasn't their day but if I dared to hope that I was sadly mistaken.
We had to withstand some real pressure. They had a goal disallowed, quite rightly, for offside, they hit the bar from a free kick and then, just inside the last ten minutes they did pull one back from substitute Ilan after the ball broke free for him. The Brazilian then missed another opportunity.
They threw men forward and we defended manfully but in the very last minute of normal time we had a massive escape when Mido hit a shot against the post with the rebound just evading Ilan.
It wasn't all one way traffic though and at least twice we could have increased the lead on the break, but there were more nerves when the fourth official held up the board showing five more minutes.
Thankfully we got through those with little concern and when Webb brought it all to an end it was the cue for celebrations. Laws was embraced by his staff, the players celebrated and the fans went wild.
Burnley were out of the bottom three, and how it was needed as news came in of a shock result at Hull. Still, at least such as Wigan and Bolton failed to win and this was followed up by another good result today when Wolves went down at Birmingham.
We've a long, long way to go yet if we want to stay in the Premier League, but the doom mongers would certainly have been telling us all that we were down had we lost this one.
It might not have been pretty at times, but it was a real battling performance with some very good individual shows. And yes, we rode our luck at times, but it's about time we had some good fortune.
Danny Fox won't forget his debut will he? He had an assist for the first one and then his goal in a very good first game from him. The two central defenders were outstanding throughout and they were both in my thoughts for the man of the match. But in the end I'm giving it to David Nugent who scored that important first goal and never gave the West Ham defence a minute's peace all afternoon.
We've two away games now and we know what usually happens in away games. Hopefully that run will come to an end too and we can continue building the points we need to stay in this division.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Leon Cort, Danny Fox (David Edgar 86), Wade Elliott, Kevin McDonald, Andre Bikey, Robbie Blake (Martin Paterson 73), David Nugent (Steven Thompson 88), Steven Fletcher. Subs not used: Nicky Weaver, Michael Duff, Jack Cork, Chris Eagles.
Yellow Cards: Kevin McDonald, Danny Fox.
West Ham: Rob Green, Julien Faubert, James Tomkins, Matthew Upson, Jonathan Spector, Valon Behrami, Scott Parker, Mark Noble (Araujo Ilan 77), Jack Collison (Junior Stanislas 62), Carlton Cole, Benni McCarthy (Mido 45). Subs not used: Marek Stech, Radoslav Kovac, Manuel Da Costa, Herita Ilunga.
Yellow Cards: Scott Parker.
Referee: Howard Webb (Rotherham).
Attendance: 21,001.