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We weren't good, and I'm certainly not here to make excuses for some real disappointments in our performance, but we have to take a realistic view of things and appreciate that our players are coming up against some of the best in the world. And that's not occasionally in cup ties any longer but just about every week in the Premier League.
I found it difficult to watch yesterday but I'd built myself up to thinking this might be our day. Against a Spurs side bereft of central defenders I thought at least we'd get off the mark away from home and not remain the only one of the 92 clubs not to have scored a solitary away goal.
But once we were behind and once a bad decision had gone against us it was another uphill battle. I'm not happy, I don't like watching us lose at any time, but we always knew it was going to be difficult.
We were early arriving at 'The Lane' and that gave me the opportunity to chat to a few home fans of similar age. The names of McIlroy, Adamson, Connelly, Blanchflower, White and MacKay were used liberally during the conversations. Spurs v Burnley is a special fixture for me and always will be because of those memories.
I even bumped into an old friend on Tottenham High Road around an hour before kick off. Peter Higgs, sports editor of the Burnley Express from 1972 to 1983, was there reporting for the Mail on Sunday. The self confessed Reading fan admitted he was delighted to see us back in the top flight but disappointed they'd lost Andre Bikey to us.
Around the same time one prominent Burnley fan was in a spot of trouble outside. He'd got a number of tickets he'd taken down for friends and had somehow lost them much to the disappointment of his wife. He was last seen setting off to try and get somewhere with the Spurs officials to get into the stadium.
Inside we soon learned the team news and there were no surprises. Joey Gudjonsson, who had come on for Chris McCann in the win against Sunderland, replaced the Irish midfielder for what was his first Premier League start in almost six years when he played for Wolves against Newcastle.
Up front it was a first start in Burnley colours for loan signing David Nugent who was in for our other long term injury victim Martin Paterson. Elsewhere it was same again and that meant Brian Jensen was fit to play in goal.
Amazingly the game got underway with the two assistant referees the busiest people involved. There were no fewer than five offside decisions in the first three minutes of the game with Spurs caught three times and us twice.
Overall though we started well but I was concerned at the defending against the pace of Robbie Keane and said that we were only one bad offside decision from going behind. That bad decision could have come from our defenders, and we've been particularly disappointing in that area recently, or the assistant.
It came from our defenders and we would have gone 1-0 down to a Keane goal but for Jensen again doing what's he's so good at, saving well in a one-on-one situation.
Going forward we were doing alright though although I was having some real difficulty in establishing our formation. It was as you would have expected other than Steven Fletcher and I wasn't at all sure where he was supposed to be playing. At times he was out in the now customary wide position but at other times partnering Nugent in a rather lop sided 4-4-2 looking formation.
Still both he and Nugent had opportunities until disaster struck with the first goal. The minute Bikey committed himself to a tackle on Jermain Defoe you knew what was going to happen. Referee Mike Dean could have put his whistle to his mouth long before it happened but certainly did so when the inevitable did happen.
Just as was the case last week with Anton Ferdinand's 'challenge' on Wade Elliott, this was a stone wall penalty decision. Your luck will always run out eventually with spot kicks and the Beast's did here. He went one way and Keane put it the other side to give Spurs the lead.
Then came the moment of controversy. Fletcher had the ball in the net at the other end. Dean had blown before the shot after the offside flag went up against Fletcher who was played in by the impressive Joey Gudjonsson.
Almost immediately text messages were arriving to tell us that it was ONSIDE, that the assistant had got it horribly wrong, and that we should have been level having scored that precious first away goal. Unfortunately the flag did go up, it was given OFFSIDE, and we remained 1-0 down.
1-0 soon became 2-0. I didn't see the foul on Stephen Jordan off the ball but I did see the Jermaine Jenas shot deflect off him and into the corner. Neither Jordan nor Jensen had a chance and the mountain was there again.
There's a consistent problem here in that we are conceding a second goal in away games too quickly after the first. It was fourteen minutes at both Stoke and Liverpool, just two minutes at Chelsea, and this time there were fifteen minutes between the two goals.
Realistically coming from behind in a game at this level is very difficult for us but trying to come from 2-0 down is going to be at times just about impossible.
We came in at half time wondering just what might happen in the second half, We couldn't afford another big score against us. Thankfully we had most of the play after an early scare and could, with a bit of luck, got back into the game.
Despite dominating the game for periods we didn't really too often create ourselves a chance. Robbie Blake had an angled shot saved well by Carlo Cudicini and then came as close as anyone after a mistake by the unpopular Spurs keeper. He failed to hold a free kick from Tyrone Mears and Robbie nipped in but from a very tight angle could only hit the ball against the foot of the post.
That was our last opportunity gone unfortunately. We made a couple of changes but then our whole world came falling in on us. Whilst we were going forward so much I always thought Tottenham were still the more likely to score and once they'd made it three they just picked us off.
Three goals in thirteen minutes might for some have put a false scoreline on things but it highlighted things so clearly. Two of those goals were just balls over the top of our defenders that Keane run on to. It was all too easy for them at that end just as it had been for long spells at the other end when we hadn't made the most of our possession.
When Spurs got forward they did so with pace and the minimum of effort, our attacks were far more laboured and we were never going to create the sort of havoc that they did to give our two central defenders nightmares.
I could be really critical here. In truth we were hammered by a side that were just far, far better than us. But I'm not going to be critical. We're still learning. Yes, we are learning the hard way but there really is no easy way to learn.
We'll continue playing the way we do because that's the manager's style and when it does bring about an away win then there won't be much complaining then. It will come, we won't be playing Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs every week.
On a difficult day for us there's only one choice for me for man of the match and that's Joey Gudjonsson. I feel with the way we play that he's a vital player given his ability to move the ball quickly. We are going to need that in the weeks ahead and Joey is going to play a major part.
The league table looks horrendous when you look at the away games, but just keep looking at the overall table. We are six places higher than what was always the realistic target of seventeenth. And as long as that's the case we're more than OK.
We didn't play anywhere near as well as we can at Spurs but we always knew it was going to be difficult although maybe not quite this difficult. We'll get better, I'm sure.
The teams were;
Tottenham: Carlo Cudicini, Vedran Corluka, Tom Huddlestone, Sebastien Bassong (Michael Dawson 88), Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Aaron Lennon (Gareth Bale 84), Jermaine Jenas, Wilson Palacios, Niko Kranjcar, Jermain Defoe (Peter Crouch 57), Robbie Keane. Subs not used: Heurelho Gomes, Alan Hutton, Kyle Naughton, David Bentley.
Yellow Cards: Wilson Palacios.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Robbie Blake (Fernando Guerrero 81), Steven Fletcher (Steven Thompson 72), David Nugent (Chris Eagles 63). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell, Kevin McDonald.
Yellow Cards: Andre Bikey.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
Attendance: 35,462.