You might not have heard about this, but when Mick McCarthy wanted to get a result against Burnley, he threw away the chance to get something at Old Trafford against a wounded and wobbly Man Utd team and made sure that his players were well rested. Gary Megson decided to go with the same approach (only without the forward planning and with more dumb luck involved), and he still couldn't coax a convincing ninety minutes out of his team.

Because of the treacherous conditions in Wigan this week, Bolton had eleven days to prepare for the game at Turf Moor – an obscene amount of time in December. Personally, I would hope that any Premier League manager that has the best part of two weeks to prepare for a game would be able to come up with something more imaginative than Bolton had against Burnley.

Owen Coyle has put together a very decent side, spending only a fraction of what Gary Megson has had at his disposal. Steven Fletcher looks the part as a Premier League striker, while Johan Elmander didn't make it off the bench yesterday.

Burnley's re-jigged defence that featured lower-league bargains (Mike Duff) and Premier League washouts (Tyrone Mears, Stephen Jordan, Andre Bikey), showed that you don't have to raid Aston Villa's reserve side for defenders. Zat Knight, who cost just about the same as Steven Fletcher, has been a disaster.

It still annoys me that Phil Gartside looked past Owen Coyle when he appointed Gary Megson - especially when it's obvious that his Burnley team is playing for him and Bolton seem to be playing in spite of Gary Megson.

In the past month Megson has made it plainly clear to the fans that there is no money to spend in January, after he (unofficially) spent £10 million in the summer. The answers are going to have to come from inside the club, and unfortunately that probably includes the manager.

Megson's 12-month rolling contract means that if he is fired at any point, he is due to receive a full year's salary as compensation. While he probably isn't making Sir Alex money, it is probably enough to make Gartside think twice about making changes, especially when he would have to pay for some saviour to come in as well.

When all the clubs at the bottom of the table are on suspicious financial footing, there's no reason to think that anyone will be able to make significant moves in January. If Gary Megson is still the manager on New Year's Day, Bolton won't be spending any money either. It seems to me like Phil Gartside might just be budgeting for relegation.