LEVEL-HEADED Burnley boss Stan Ternent admitted that automatic promotion "is a possibility" after his side had snatched a dramatic 2-1 win at Oxford to close in on the top two places.

Late goals from Steve Davis and Paul Weller, coupled with Wigan's defeat at Gillingham, means the Clarets will go second in the table if they win their game in hand against the Gills at home tomorrow night.

Burnley still have plenty of work to do to complete a remarkable dash for promotion with matches to come this week against sixth-placed Gillingham and third-placed Millwall.

But their fate is back in their own hands and Ternent confirmed: "It's possible if we win all our games, which is a tall order. But mathematically it's possible.

"I said that our first objective was to get into a position of safety which we achieved quite early in the season.

"Now our objective is to make sure, at worst, of getting a play-off place.

"But once we've achieved that -- and it may take to the last week of the season, who knows? -- we'll push on and see if we can get an automatic promotion. It is possible." The Clarets were understandably cock-a-hoop after another storming finish, in which Weller bagged the winner in the 93rd-minute, gave them their seventh away win of a remarkable campaign.

And Ternent again praised the quality of his squad which will be supplemented by Andy Cooke, Gordon Armstrong, Tom Cowan and Gerry Harrison after they spent the weekend building up their fitness in a two-day training session.

"We''ll report on Monday morning, re-group and then we've got another important game on Tuesday night at Turf Moor and we'll see what it brings," said the boss, whose side has now come up with vital late goals in three of their last four games.

He added: "A game goes 90 minutes. When you score is not important as long as you do. But again the players showed fantastic character and resilience.

"Again it was a very tough match and in fairness to Oxford they played very well.

"I thought we gave a poor goal away but overall I thought we shaded the game.

"And I think we fully deserved to win.

"There will still be some twists in the tail and it will go to the wire. But we're up there and still running and this isn't an easy place to come and win so this is a very valuable three points for us."