Sunday, 26 October 2025, Lyle Foster has just scored a 95th-minute winner for Burnley in a 3-2 victory at Wolves to help move his side five points clear of the Premier League's relegation zone.

It was also the first time the Clarets had recorded back-to-back wins in the top flight for more than three years and there seemed to be plenty of reasons for optimism.

Roll forward 12 months and any sense of positivity has all but vanished with Burnley relegated, on the cusp of creating an unwanted home record and currently in the Championship's bottom three.

All of this has come amid growing unrest among supporters over the ownership of Alan Pace and ALK Capital, so just what has gone wrong?

Since 2010, Burnley have won promotion to the Premier League on five occasions and of their five subsequent relegations they have bounced back immediately three times - but achieving that for a fourth time is looking increasingly unlikely.

After Scott Parker's departure towards the end of last season, Nicky Hayen was finally brought in as Burnley's new head coach less than a month before the new Championship campaign started, after a move for Wales boss Craig Bellamy fell through.

"I think there is an element of sympathy among the fans for Hayen but two things can be true at the same time - you can sympathise and also think he's out of his depth," said Joe Redmond, creator and host of the Turfcast podcast.

"He was brought in after pre-season had started, has been forced to work with some coaches left over from Scott Parker and had his main striker, Zian Flemming, sold from under him on transfer deadline day.

"These are clearly errors from the hierarchy but at the same time he clearly isn't getting the best out of this squad - I'm sure there's a decent manager in there somewhere but I don't think he's what we need right now."

A total of 11 new players arrived under Hayen during a busy summer of transfer activity with 10 heading for the exit as the Belgian overhauled the squad.

What has followed has been nothing short of a horror show in the lead up to Halloween.

"I look at that squad and it's been scattergun," former Watford and Reading midfielder Jobi McAnuff, now an EFL pundit, told the BBC's podcast 72+.

"They bounce up [to the Premier League], come down, go up, come down and they haven't handled that well enough - we all knew Flemming was going but you leave it right until the end of the window and you're killing the manager.

"Then you get [Jamie] Vardy in. I love him but he's 39 and you cannot expect him to be your main man all season, he's going to come on and chip in and be great around the dressing room."

"At the very minimum we should be battling it out at the top end of the table," added Redmond.

"This squad has proved it's not good enough for that so far this season but one coming down from the Premier League should be able to compete, and if it can't then something has gone seriously wrong."

For so long, Burnley's success has been built on their home form. Before this season they had lost only one of their previous 46 Championship games at Turf Moor, winning 30 of them.

But a failure to beat Portsmouth on 31 October (15:00 BST) will set a new English record for the longest time without a home win - surpassing Sheffield Wednesday's unwanted mark of 376 days between April 2025 and May 2026.

"Most of this run came in the Premier League, where they didn't look like winning at home or away for most of the season," BBC Radio Lancashire commentator Scott Read added.

"It's a knock-on from that, but they should have won at home this season. They've let leads slip against Bristol City, Derby, Charlton and Wolves."

A 2-0 victory over Leeds on 18 October 2025 is the last time the home faithful saw a win. Since then, Burnley have lost 10 and drawn 11 of their 21 league games, scoring only 21 goals in the process.

The latest home defeat by Wolves last Friday was followed by boos at full-time.

"I can't blame the fans, they want the best for their team and if you have losses like this it is normal," boss Hayen said.

"You know when you are losing, the atmosphere changes into negativity and I can accept it as a reality."

"The scary thing for them is they've been in really good positions at home in the past four games," added McAnuff.

"They've had leads, conceded late and you can feel the energy, tension and nervousness around the stadium which is absolutely having an impact on those players."

A Halloween loss at home to Portsmouth might bring more than a fright for their embattled boss - if he makes it until then, that is.

Pace and his ALK Capital investment group completed their takeover of Burnley in December 2020.

There was some unease from supporters over the nature of the buyout of previous major shareholders Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz as it involved taking a loan of £65m to complete the deal.

Last season's relegation, the delay in appointing a new head coach and the poor start to the campaign has brought pressure on Pace.

"Anti-Alan Pace chants and banners were on display during the last home game but there is no indication they [ALK] are looking to sell and even if he wanted to, with the amount of debt the club is carrying it would be a pretty hard sell," BBC Radio Lancashire's Read added.

With this all in the background, Hayen still elected to leave his job in charge of Belgian top-tier side Genk for a first taste of managing in English football.

"I was aware [of the size of the job] because there were a lot of people who said I came into a really difficult situation. Even with the best players who left and the structure in the club I was aware of it," he said after defeat by Wolves.

"Our expectations are much higher but we are working really hard and 100% we can change it, but if we change everything into negativity in our support then we will be in trouble."

But while results continue to be hard to come by, Clarets supporters are becoming increasingly disillusioned.

"It's going wrong absolutely everywhere at Turf Moor and the only way it changes is with changes in personnel, whether they be in the dugout, boardroom or hopefully both - it remains to be seen, but surely if we lose to Lincoln something has got to change?" podcast creator Redmond added.

Trouble on the field and trouble off it - Burnley's visit to the Imps on Saturday (15:00 BST) comes with time for those in charge seemingly running out, as is the patience of those paying through the gates.