Mistakes cost Clarets dear

Well our away form continued to resemble a retarded abacus against Spurs at the weekend. I'm sure by now even the most unfortunate of children will have mastered their first count to five as it's now a sequence of 2-0, 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0 defeats away from home in the league- if we're not careful that bastard kid will be doing the most complicated times tables by Christmas.

The only thing that's missing in the sequence so far is a one nil away beating, something which I think we'd have taken over the last couple of games away from Turf Moor.

There is no doubt that the Premier League offers us some almost inevitable defeats but the manner in which we lose will always be well within our control. In every match we play we always manage to get the ball down and play some of our trademark good football but that can’t be at the expense of some of the kamikaze defending we saw at the weekend.

As individuals we work hard enough away from home but it’s nothing like the well rounded team performances we see at the Turf. It just seems that despite our fair share of possession, the lack fire in the final third adds to the already considerable pressure being put on our goal.

There were of course chances on Saturday; Steven Fletcher had a perfectly good goal ruled offside to make it one nil, while Robbie Blake couldn’t squeeze in Cudicini’s fumble to get us back into the game at 3-0.

But at both points that’s where we crumbled and conceded killer goals to completely stunt our rhythm.

Elementary defensive mistakes are costing us dear and with the possible exception of Tottenham’s second which should have been a foul in the build up you can point to errors that should not be happening at the rate they are in almost every goal.

Away from home our backline is lacking communication, concentration and at times competence; we definitely need to hope that the skipper Steven Caldwell is fit enough to start sooner rather than later to inject some much needed leadership and organisation back into our defensive line.

The lack of protection they are receiving from the midfield is also seriously adding to our woes.

The hard working Gudjonsson played well on Saturday but again the trio of Joey, Elliot and Alexander played mainly as individuals and not as a unit which left gaping holes for Spurs to surge through and pick more holes in our already leaky defence.

Out wide it seems Steven Fletcher is screaming out to be played down the middle on a more regular basis, while as much as I love Robbie Blake he will always be hit and miss depending on whether he receives enough of the ball high up the pitch to make an impact.

I’m still banging the Chris Eagles drum for him to be given a start in a bid to freshen things up. In one or two positions there is some real competition for places, but it can only be called that if the players knocking on the door are given their opportunity to impress; and as things currently stand Eagles is deserving of that chance.

There have been calls for a change of tactic on our travels but I’m not sure how else we could set up that would offer a better way of protecting the back four and competing with the opposition. Maybe a traditional 4-4-2 (not the one we flitted between at the weekend) would allow us to play further up the pitch, especially with the neat touches and hold up play offered by the likes of Steven Fletcher and David Nugent. That approach is always a tricky one in the modern game, especially looking our previous opponents Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea who can play from back to front with such devastating pace and power.

We can’t be too disheartened though, although nobody likes to be hammered, the start we’ve had is still better than anything we could ever have imagined. The lack of an away point or goal will come but we must make sure its sooner rather than later as we can’t afford pin all our hopes on what is so far our superb home form. We need to learn our lessons much faster and make sure we give ourselves a chance in football matches away from Turf Moor; especially with that trip to Ewood Park ever looming.