Gutted

It was a shocking ninety minutes of football and I'm sure if you'd been watching that on television you would have reached for the off switch long before half time. Southend won't think it was shocking though, they got that winner and that's seen them climb out of the bottom three for the first time in months.

As for us, it is time to take a long hard look at the way things are going. Apparently we are having to suffer short term pain for long term gain with Andy Gray and Ade Akinbiyi, but that short term pain is becoming more medium term and if it goes on much longer it could well see our two most expensive imports under Steve Cotterill's management playing League One football next season.

We simply don't score goals and to be honest we don't look like scoring goals. Ade had a wonderful chance early in the game yesterday. He missed it, and we were never to have an opportunity like it for the rest of the game. I watched our two strikers last night, particularly in the second half when they played towards the Burnley fans and thought how much better we might have looked with Gifton Noel-Williams in the side.

It's not just the front players, we need to take a long hard look at the midfield. Again they never got close to supporting the front men. I hardly recall seeing Chris McCann, Wade was quieter than usual, James O'Connor struggled and please don't get me started on Joey Gudjonsson.

He was player of the season at Leicester in 2005/06 and you can only think that either they have pretty low standards or he played a hell of a lot better for them than he's doing for us. He's already becoming a target from certain sections of the crowd after hardly more than a handful of games. I can't believe Eric Djemba-Djemba wouldn't be a better bet, even John Spicer, but I thought how much better we might have looked with Micah Hyde in the side.

There were no changes to the side that drew at home against Palace last time out although Jon Harley reverted to left back with Chris McCann going onto the left hand side of midfield. Kyle Lafferty was back on the bench having served a one match ban.

We needed a good positive start, and we got one, well almost. It all came from Gudjonsson who found Gray who in turn presented Ade with the easiest of chances. He hurried it, hit it on the volley and I think the corner flag was in more danger of being threatened than Darryl Flahavan's goal.

Still, a positive start, just what we needed, but it was soon downhill from there. John McGreal pulled up with what is a groin injury and with only a few minutes gone he was replaced by Stephen Foster, the former Crewe defender going to right back with Michael Duff moving into the centre to partner Steven Caldwell.

Foster got caught almost immediately as a ball was played over the top for Lee Bradbury. Thankfully the veteran's shooting hasn't improved with age and his effort went wide, and that prompted captain Caldwell to give Harley one almighty blasting. Harley had played the former Manchester City forward onside from the other side of the pitch, but to be fair the rollocking worked and Harley, who was up against the pacy Campbell-Ryce, went on to have a very good game.

I think it is fair to say nothing much happened in the rest of the first half. Danny Coyne didn't have a save to make, whilst at the other end Flahavan had to deal with one effort from Wade. It was no real surprise to hear Paul Taylor's whistle go with the score 0-0.

That takes me on to the referee, who had little to deal with all night. Not for the first time I reported on the referee for the game only to find a later replacement coming out in front of the teams. It was Taylor's first Burnley game since the home defeat against Preston in January of last year.

Freddy Eastwood shot wide with the first effort of the second half. "Where's your caravan?" cried the Burnley fans. But it was soon evident there was to be no improvement on the first half from either side.

We replaced Gudjonsson with Kyle Lafferty on the hour after the Icelander had twice given the ball away again from set pieces in quick succession. This change was met with delight from the away support, but it made no difference to be honest with Kyle struggling and McCann offering nothing more in the midfield.

A chance of a Burnley goal was becoming less and less likely as the game continued. As poor as the front two were they were very much left on their own at times with the midfield showing less and less inclination to get up and support them.

We did make yet another change at right back. Steve Cotterill admitted this week that it had been a problem position but I don't think he had this in mind. Foster was limping badly and had to come off and John Spicer got up for his first action since mid-December.

Duff back to right back, where he started, with McCann moving into the centre of the defence looked the most logical but instead it was Wade who dropped into the right back position and that brought back the memories of the Coventry away game just over a year ago.

It proved to be the move that ultimately cost us. We'd reached ninety minutes at 0-0, no surprise there, and I don't think either manager could have been expecting a goal. But Wade got a back header to Coyne wrong, it allowed Richie Foran to get in and that, as they say, was that.

Caldwell was undoubtedly my choice as man of the match with Harley also having a very good game. I could not be positive about the performances of any of our other players. It was no surprise that Southend in the end replaced Campbell-Ryce and Bradbury.

Some say relegation is inevitable, but that is nonsense. There are six teams still below us and they all have a much better chance still of going down. But, on the other hand, we are in free fall, we just can't win a game, and a look at the results tells you exactly why, we've scored just seven goals in that run of sixteen league games without a win and we've scored just four times in the last thirteen, and that quite frankly is appalling.

No relegation is not inevitable, but don't be fooled either into believing that we are not in a relegation battle - we are, very much so, and there is every chance that we won't win it. Like everyone else I wonder where the next win is coming from and only the blind optimist would consider it coming at Deepdale on Saturday. Anything but a win will see us equal the club record for league games without a win in one season, a record set in 1889/90 season.

All we can do is get behind the team, offer them our support. It's not going to help having a go at them and at the end of the day, should we be relegated, it is us the fans who will suffer the most, as we all know.

Can I hold out any confidence that we won't be relegated? I'd be a complete fool to say yes to that, I really do think we have a major struggle on our hands. I thought we might be in a relegation fight after QPR, I'm damn sure we are in one now after that last night.

This is our team, our club, and I saw the pain on all the faces last night in that away end. I'm still gutted, it's hurting like hell but I know there are many other Clarets feeling exactly the same right now.

I'll always be a Claret and I'll always support them. Again on Saturday I'll be backing the manager and the players, but there comes a time when things have to change one way or the other.

The teams were;

Southend: Darryl Flahavan, Simon Francis, Peter Clarke, Efe Sodje, Lewis Hunt, Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Lloyd Sam 70), Kevin Maher, Alan McCormack, Mark Gower (Matt Harrold 80), Lee Bradbury (Richie Foran 70), Freddy Eastwood. Subs not used: Steven Collis, Steven Hammell.

Burnley: Danny Coyne, Michael Duff, John McGreal (Stephen Foster 7, John Spicer 74), Steve Caldwell, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson (Kyle Lafferty 60), James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Andy Gray, Ade Akinbiyi. Subs not used: Eric Djemba-Djemba, Steve Jones.

Referee: Paul Taylor (Hertfordshire).

Attendance: 8,855.