Clarets hot shot Andy Payton still has to find another 24 goals to fulfill his dream of joining Burnley's 100 club.

But the Padiham Predator is fast climbing the list of all-time great goalscorers at Turf Moor.

His 14th goal of the season at Scunthorpe last Tuesday night was his 76th in a Burnley shirt to put him on a par with former Clarets favourite Martin Dobson and Richard Smith, a forward who plied his trade in the early 1900s.

And there are now only 19 players since Burnley started playing League football in 1888 to have scored more than Payton.

"I think there are only eight or nine players in the history of the club who have scored 100 goals so I want to do that, being a local lad," he said.

In fact, Payton would be the ninth if he could make it as there are just eight former players in three figures -- the most recent being Andy Lochhead.

And while reaching the milestone was no big deal to Lochhead in his playing days, the Scot now looks back with a sense of achievement.

"I never really thought too much about it at the time but with Andy Payton getting close it has brought it back.

"We all had a job to do to score goals and socre goals we did.

"I'm just picking up on it now that there are only eight who have done it for Burnley. It's a small number and I'm proud and privileged to be part of that group," said Lochhead, who is also a member of an even more elite group of six players to have bagged 100 League goals.

The powerful striker followed the trend continued by current Turf Moor youth coach Jimmy Robson, who scored exactly 100 times in all competitions for Burnley prior to his departure to Blackpool in 1965 after a goal-laden period.

When the club was in its hey-day as League Champions and FA Cup finalists in the early 1960s, Ray Pointer, Jimmy McIlroy and John Connelly all completed a century as the Clarets swept all before them.

They were the first post-war players to hit the ton after Bert Freeman, Louis Page and the legendary George Beel, the club's all-time record scorer with 187 goals, had been the early standard bearers.

And following Lochhead's departure to Leicester City in 1968 and Willie Irvine's to Preston the same year Burnley had to wait until the mid-seventies for anyone to even go close to the three-figure mark as Frank Casper chalked up 89 goals before Paul Fletcher (86), Leighton James (81) and Peter Noble (80) made their mark as the decade wore on.

The mantle was then taken on by Billy Hamilton, next in Payton's sights along with Brian Pilkington on 77, before the goal trail began to dry up as the Clarets tumbled down the League.

The likes of Ron Futcher, Wayne Biggins, Roger Eli, Mike Conroy and Kurt Nogan briefly threatened to provide the missing link but nobody sustained their strike-rate until Payton arrived from Huddersfield Town in a swap deal with Paul Barnes, who had the goal power but not the longevity to join the greats.

Payton has so far shown signs of having both and his strike-rate bares comparison with the best.

The 33-year-old goalscorer, who has also found the net for Hull, Middlesbrough, Celtic, Barnsley and Huddersfield in a prolific career, has scored his goals at better than one every two games since his arrival at Turf Moor three years ago this month.

His 76 goals have come in 131 starts and 12 substitute's appearances -- a rate bettered only by Beel, Pointer, Freeman and Irvine. And Lochead believes Payton could yet make the magic 100.

"I think so. He's a proven goalscorer with the knack of being in the right place at the right time and as long as his form holds up he could do it.

"The closer he gets the harder it might become for him but as long as he doesn't dry up I don't see why he can't get there," said the 59-year-old, whose achievement of three 20-goal seasons in a row from 1964 to 1967 is another milestone in Payton's sights.