On Wednesday night they produced some answers.

It has been a testing time since the first week of January delivered the hammer blow that Owen Coyle was departing for a relegation rival.

Brian Laws has had something of a baptism of fire, but he is starting to find out exactly what he has inherited, and it is a set of players who are not giving up their shot at the big time lightly.

Summing up that spirit are two names that will go down in Clarets folklore, regardless of the outcome of this season.

Martin Paterson and Steven Thompson netted those never-to-be-forgotten goals that sent Burnley to Wembley and beyond.

They have had to be more patient than most to test themselves against the best, but they have epitomised the attitude and application required.

Paterson, having missed five months with a knee injury, has returned with a bang, with two goals while played down the middle, and a selfless shift when deployed down the flanks.

Here, he delivered the pin-point cross that was headed in, in what is becoming trademark fashion, by David Nugent to secure a precious point, and one vicious swerving cross-shot almost delivered another goal.

Thompson, meanwhile, granted his first ever Premier League start, at the age of 31, was arguably the best player on the pitch.

He won more headers than he lost against Stoke's humungous back line, made sure the ball stuck, and his link play was excellent - playing his part in feeding Paterson for the equaliser.

An equaliser was the least Burnley deserved after a second half transformation.

In the first half, Burnley were bullied by a team who, if they were playing in my back garden, I'd pull the curtains.

The Clarets have struggled this season against the physical barrage served up by the likes of Stoke, Bolton, Blackburn and Wolves, which, unfortunately has proved effective in a league deemed by many as the best in the world - but a world away from the football served up in Spain.

It is one of many factors which leave Laws' men in their current predicament, where they are fighting for their lives.

They have been unable to win the battles to allow them to let their football do the talking.

Before the season started, you expected the Clarets to be carved up on occasions by brilliant pass and move football, but there are few examples of that - with Ashley Cole's goal at Chelsea a rare exception.
Credit to Stoke, they do what they do well, but call it what you want, it isn't football.

When they play to a high tempo and mix and match the football and physical aspects of their game, they are a sight to behold.

But here, they offered nothing other than the long throw, with Rory Delap defeating Burney's ploy of bringing the advertising hoardings right in to the Premier League minimum one metre.

Burnley, however, after shipping a goal from a Delap throw - the 19th in two seasons from that route - came out a different side in the second half.

As Laws said: "We got dragged into a bit of head tennis, and we're not good at that.

"They bullied us a little, but I felt if we could play our game, good football, get the ball on the floor, we'd have some joy."

Kevin McDonald was another with a point to prove, after a disappointing couple of performances.

Left on the bench, he replaced Jack Cork at the break and proceeded to show us what he is all about, putting that frame to good effect, and carrying and passing the ball like we know he can.

The second half display was such that Laws was disappointed not to take all three, but it could turn out to be a big point, especially if Wolves are put to the sword tomorrow.

A first point in five games raises the spirits further after the encouragement of the Emirates, and we will get a big clue tomorrow as to which direction the Clarets' season is heading.