Clarets have found a bright light

It's not just the points, but the performances which, after the first quarter of an hour against Norwich, have been nothing like the poor football we've had to contend with since the turn of the year.

Tonight we made the worst possible start, behind with only just over half a minute on the clock, but we had enough resolve, enough confidence and enough ability to get ourselves quickly back into the game and with any luck in the second half we would have won all three points.

Steve Cotterill made one change ahead of the game, giving Alan Mahon his first start at the expense of Wade Elliott on the right hand side of midfield. There was also a return for Micah Hyde on the bench, and that's a sign of change at Burnley when players returning to fitness don't have to go straight back into the starting eleven.

I joked earlier about the presence of Jermaine Wright in the Southampton team. He scored against us in the first minute at Leeds last season and repeated that for Millwall earlier this season. I should have known better and although he didn't score this time we found ourselves a goal down again with less than a minute gone, and he was involved.

Richard Chaplow go the ball out to him on the right and his cross was met by former Derby County striker Grzegorz Rasiak who could only knock the ball onto Phil Bardsley who turned the ball past Brian Jensen and into his own goal.

It was just the sort of start we didn't want, but we were level within eight minutes with Andy Gray getting his second goal in Burnley colours. He raced onto a ball from Alan Mahon and as the keeper came out he pushed it past him. That took him wide but he turned it in from a narrow angle and we were back in the game.

The goal didn't give us the lift we wanted and we could have fallen behind again as ex-Claret Chaplow got on the end of a chance only for his effort to be blocked by Chris McCann, and for much of the rest of the half the visitors had plenty of the possession but hardly troubled us and a 1-1 scoreline was just about right at the interval.

The second half was a different story as we played some of the best football we've played in quite some time and Southampton will wonder just how they got away without conceding at least one more goal.

Mahon was the closest with a brilliant shot from about 25 yards out that crashed against the bar. Their 37 year-old debutant keeper Kevin Miller didn't have a chance of getting close to that but more than once he kept them in the game with a string of top saves.

Twice he denied McCann, the second of them the better of the saves with his feet and he made a superb save close to the end of the game to keep out a shot from Jon Harley.

Little was seen of Southampton as an attacking force and when they did get forward it usually came to an end with a bit of blatant diving. Incredibly Danish striker Peter Madsen was even worse than Rasiak, and at one point the Burnley fans on the Longside enquired as to whether he was actually Didier Drogba in disguise.

It's all been well documented over the last few days, and the Southampton pair were a shining example of just what we don't want to see in the game. They didn't get away with it but a stronger referee would have taken more action against them.

Eventually Madsen was taken off as George Burley made a double substitution to try and turn the game Southampton's way, but they made little difference and the Clarets will have felt a little hard done by at the end not to have taken all three points. Still, just a few days ago we were wondering whether we'd ever get another point or whether we'd ever score another goal.

It's definitely been a better few days and the crowd have responded to the performances making the Turf a better place than its been for a while. And again, as was the case last Friday, there were some very good individual performances.

The two central defenders, Duff and Sinclair, and the two central midfielders O'Connor and McCann, were all in fine form and any one of them could have taken the man of the match award. Captain Frank did from the sponsors but my choice was left back Jon Harley who turned in one of his best performances yet since joining the Clarets.

Four points from two games, it would be nice now to go and get something away from home, we've been waiting a long time. The light is beginning to shine brightly at the end of that tunnel.

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Phil Bardsley, Michael Duff, Frank Sinclair, Jon Harley, Alan Mahon, James O'Connor (Micah Hyde 90), Chris McCann, Graham Branch, Michael Ricketts (Kyle Lafferty 74), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Wade Elliott.

Southampton: Kevin Miller, Alexander Ostlund (Darren Potter 69), Claus Lundekvam, Darren Kenton, Danny Higginbotham, Richard Chaplow, Chris Baird, Jermaine Wright, Jim Brennan, Peter Madsen (Kenwyne Jones 69), Grzegorz Rasiak. Subs not used: Paul Smith, Nathan Dyer, Dexter Blackstock.

Referee: André Marriner (West Midlands).

Attendance: 10,636.