I decided to wait until Monday evening before reacting to the after-match comments from Chris Waddle on Saturday.

I was hoping that common sense would prevail and that Chris would make some gesture of apology to the Burnley fans after having a couple of days to consider his position.

Unfortunately, Chris seems to have hit the self distruct button with his arrogant and childish attitude towards any form of criticism.

The verbal abuse aimed towards Lee Howey on Saturday was out of order but, clearly, only a fraction of the supporters at the match were involved.

It is, however, no surprise that the fans were annoyed with the selection of Howey in preference to Andy Cooke as he has struggled to show any real form as a defender, never mind striker, since signing from Sunderland. It should, however, be considered that the booing (by a small minority of the crowd) was not necessarily aimed personally towards the player in question.

I feel also that part of the angry reaction from fans has been coming for some time due to the poor performance of the management team since day one.

Chris continues to moan about the lack of money available but has had more financial support from the Board than any other recent manager.

On appointment, he brought in a completely new management team of Roeder, Woods, and Cowans none of whom will need to claim income support to supplement their wages and I would suggest that management salaries have at least doubled on last year.

I believe that almost £600,000 has also been spent on new players in addition to several free transfers, all of whom will need to be paid. This represents a substantial financial commitment from a club without a sugar daddy and the bigger question to ask is not what money has been spent but on what quality of playing staff.

It was clearly evident that panic set in from day one with the rush to sign more central defenders when, in Swan, Brass, Harrison plus Gentile and Moore, we had a solid base from which to build. The original squad of players were never given an opportunity to prove their worth concluding with the ridiculous situation of players such as Gerry Harrison being put on the transfer list. It is gratifying to see Gerry now putting in some excellent performances making Waddle and Roeder eat their words. The obvious problems of lack of cover at full back or striker were never tackled, as is still the case a further four months into the season.

This has resulted in quality players such as Chris Brass and Paul Weller being asked to play out of position and their own performance and confidence have suffered.

We needed a strong influence in the midfield with a player prepared to tackle and lead by example but whilst two players have been brought in neither can fill this role.

These circumstances left us in the position on Saturday whereby, after the abysmal team performance against Rotherham, Andy Cooke was replaced by Howey despite the fact that Lee had clearly been that worst player on the park that Tuesday night.

I do feel sorry for the way Lee Howey was treated on Saturday but the blame for that lies as much with the management team for selecting him to play there in the first place.

This is clearly a crucial time at Burnley football club as we now fight a relegation battle with limited resources in terms of cover in vital team positions and no further financial help available unless one of our clutch of young stars is sold.

The fans will continue to support the club as long as the management start to own up to their mistakes and stop hiding behind lame excuses.

Chris Waddle still owes a public apology to the majority of Burnley fans and the Board of Directors now need to show their leadership of the club and ensure this apology is forthcoming.

John Jobes