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When we won promotion last May, I knew it was going to be difficult. I wasn't naïve enough to think we would go and play some of the top teams away from home and come home with big wins. I realised that most of the time we'd be on our way back to Burnley without any points.
It was also clear, right from the off, that we'd conceded a lot of goals. We weren't even set up to defend against the top teams and so they just rained in on us at the likes of Liverpool, Spurs and West Ham in particular. It was apparently going toe to toe with them.
We were always going to get some hammerings, but yesterday for the first time this season, I found it really hard to take. So devastating was it that one prominent fan had made his way out of the ground before Paterson's late consolation.
I've watched Burnley long enough and I can usually deal with most things, but to concede those goals so quickly would have dampened the enthusiasm of anyone.
Manager Brian Laws has walked into a difficult situation. Whether he's the right choice to take us forward I don't know, but what I do know is there was no criticism of him yesterday at Villa Park yet some of the comments on this web site's message board were astonishing. Quite how on earth he can be judged so soon, having taken over a team that had gone two and a half months without a win, is anyone's guess.
He needs time, and we need to give him time. He's going to be with us throughout this battle and it is a battle we all have to believe we can win. We not marooned at the bottom, we haven't had four owners this season, and we don't face the High Court at the beginning of next month. The truth is we are one win from safety and seven of the remaining twelve games are at Turf Moor.
Looking back at yesterday's game, we made two changes from the side that had lost at Fulham. Jack Cork got a first start at Wade Elliott's expense whilst Chris Eagles was back on the left hand side with Danny Fox returning to left back with David Edgar dropping out.
This was always going to be a tough one, particular with Villa's pace and players such as Ashley Young, James Milner and Stewart Downing to deal with. They mightn't have been at their best, but we more than coped with them in the opening exchanges, in fact for the entirety of he first half.
We had our moments too, and in the tenth minute took the lead with a good goal. It started with a long kick from Brian Jensen that was headed on down the right hand side by David Nugent.
Cork picked it up and when he got the benefit of a rebound he played in a good ball for Nugent who had made a run towards the box. Nuge got past the defender and squared the ball for Steven Fletcher who hit home from close range.
We might well have held on to that lead right up to half time but for conceding a soft goal. Villa won a free kick on the left wing, a free kick I'm still not so sure about. But we learned very early in the game yesterday that with Stuart Attwell in charge it was a lot easier for Villa to get free kicks than it was us, so much so that on one occasion we did get one the referee received sustained applause from the away fans.
Young took the free kick and Jensen opted to punch rather than catch at the expense of a corner. A short one from Milner led to Young playing the ball in to the box. It went through Fox's legs, caught Jensen's arm and nestled into the net.
So all level at half time and I was even beginning to think we might get something. It hadn't been a bad day so far. I'd seen the Burnley fans celebrating a Blackburn Rovers goal on the concourse, and I don't recall having seen that happen before, and now we were more than holding our own here.
At the start of the second half we were very much the team in the ascendancy. I'd have loved another goal, but had we just kept it at 1-1 I'd have been coming home happy enough.
Then it came. Out of the blue, and against the run of play, Villa took the lead. Five minutes after that it was 4-1 and another six minutes on and the scoreboard was showing 5-1. That was it, game over, top sides don't come back from 5-1 and there was no way we were going to.
I feared more. A day after seeing our youth team win 9-1, on the very day Spurs were playing their return against Wigan, there were too many omens. Thankfully that didn't happen and the only other goal came our way in stoppage time when the impressive Cork played in substitute Paterson for a consolation.
I was stunned by it all, I still am, and there is no doubt that the defending during that spell was totally unacceptable. It matters not any longer that we played more than well enough for fifty minutes of this game.
The Burnley fans inside Villa Park were fantastic, and I know they'll continue to be for the remaining five away games this season. And hopefully we'll have great support in the seven home games.
When we kicked off at Stoke we knew how difficult it would be. We didn't have the money to spend to compete with most clubs in this league and we were always everyone's favourites to go down.
Anyone who ever thought we wouldn't be in a relegation battle this season was living in cloud cuckoo land. That's how it is in this league, and if we were to stop up that's how it will be next season.
We can only hope we get the chance for that second battle. The home games are very important, but there again they have been all season. And remember, our former manager kept telling us the first away win isn't far away.
Keep the faith, we can still do this.
The teams at Villa Park were;
Aston Villa: Brad Friedel, Carlos Cuellar, James Collins, Richard Dunne, Stephen Warnock, Ashley Young (Steve Sidwell 82), James Milner, Stiliyan Petrov, Stewart Downing, Gabriel Agbonlahor (John Carew 72), Emile Heskey, (Nathan Delfoneso 77). Subs not used: Brad Guzan, Luke Young, Fabian Delph, Habib Beye.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Leon Cort, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Andre Bikey, Kevin McDonald (Wade Elliott 64), David Nugent (Frédéric Nimani 70), Steven Fletcher (Martin Paterson 82), Chris Eagles. Subs not used: Nicky Weaver, Michael Duff, Robbie Blake, Steven Thompson.
Yellow Cards: Clarke Carlisle, Steven Fletcher, Frédéric Nimani.
Referee: Stuart Attwell (Nuneaton).
Attendance: 38,709.