MATT Taylor did not think twice.

When referee Mike Riley pointed to the penalty spot he picked up the ball and placed it.

His friend, Mike Pollitt, was on the goalline for Wigan Athletic trying to stop it. But all Taylor could think about was Portsmouth’s ‘great escape’.

He buried it, just like he had seven days beforehand late on at home to Sunderland. Back-to-back spot kicks had secured back-to-back wins.

Mission seemingly impossible, when Pompey were eight points adrift of safety with 10 games to go in the 2005/06 season, had been achieved.

“I grabbed the ball and I thought ‘well, if I miss at least I’ve had the guts to stand up and take it’,” Taylor explained.

“We didn’t have a regular penalty taker at the time.

“If someone else had wanted it I probably would have said ‘no’ simply because I had scored from the spot the week before.

“I have been confident in my ability throughout my career. I know what I can do and I know what I can’t do.

“If you step up and take it you have to accept you might miss it and along with that will come some criticism. But happily it went in.”

That experience, among others, was a factor in Sean Dyche bringing the midfielder to Turf Moor on a free transfer in the summer as he made plans for his first season in the Premier League and Burnley’s second in five years.

That know-how, to help his team-mates deal with games like today’s against Leicester City - a crunch relegation clash between two bottom three teams that is billed as a ‘six-pointer’ or ‘must-win’, to encourage them to play the game but not the occasion as they look to bridge the two-point gap to safety.

“It’s magnified with the position of both teams in the league at the moment,” said Taylor.

“It’s a huge game but ultimately it is only three points that either of us can go for.

“Through my experience when you start thinking about it differently, it can have a negative effect. It can take your mind away from what’s important.

“We accept it’s a huge game but we’ve had 33 huge games up to now.

“The league table suggests that we need to win and we’ll be going out to do that. But there are four games left in the season after this.

“I’ve been situations like this previously and we only want to think about the next game and not what’s coming up.”

Similarly, unlike counterparts Steve Bruce, at Hull, and QPR’s Chris Ramsey, Dyche will not be drawn on the idea of how many games he thinks his side need to win to ensure another Premier League season.

“No, that’s not my way of working. It wasn’t last year and it isn’t now. It’s every game as it comes,” he said.

“I don’t think we’re powerful enough in this division - I didn’t think we were in the last - to start thinking about the games beyond.

“The next one’s the big one, we look forward to it, we’ll be ready for it.

“That’s how I go about it.

“I’ve said many times we make sense of it after the event, move on to the next one.”

An Achilles injury, and subsequent operation kept Taylor out for more than seven months - a longer lay-off than he envisaged.

But he is back for the run-in and ready to give his all; prepared to take more pressure penalties - if required.

“I’ll be quite happy to do so,” said the 33-year-old.

“But I would speak to the lads first. And if someone else feels confident then by all means.”