SEEING Burnley back in the Premier League would be a dream for any Clarets fan.

But Oliver Norwood is prepared to be an obstacle to a potential top flight return, even if it means feeling the wrath of friends and family.

For the Northern Ireland midfielder’s first concern is to keep Coventry City in the Championship, despite his deep-seated allegiance to his hometown team.

Burnley-born Norwood grew up in the shadow of Turf Moor and was a season ticket holder up until signing his first full-time contract with Manchester United.

“I’m a big Burnley fan,” he admitted.

Since joining Coventry on loan from Old Trafford on January transfer deadline day, though, his focus has been on boosting the Sky Blues’ survival bid.

And that will be his only focus tomorrow – more important than running out at Turf Moor for the first time as a professional, no matter how much he is looking forward to ticking that box.

“I played at Turf Moor when I was at school but never played a professional game there,” he said.

“I’ve been waiting for this game to come round since I signed for Coventry.

“It will be a great experience for me, being a local lad and living a stone’s throw from the stadium when I was growing up.

"It feels like going home.

"I used to go to Turf Moor with my dad. I was a season-ticket holder from when I was eight to when I went full-time at United.

“I’ve got a few friends who play there – I'm quite close to Jay Rodriguez, who has obviously done really well for himself this year.

"I think he might miss the game, though, which would be good for us.”

Norwood hopes Burnley’s inconsistent home form is something Coventry can take advantage of too, having got the inside track from those closer to home.

"All my friends are (Burnley) season-ticket holders and they tell me ‘you’ve got a chance because we haven’t been great at home all season.’ Even my fiancee’s dad said that – ‘we’re great away but often we don’t perform at home’,” he said.

"But it’s all down to what we do on the day; we’ve got to have that belief that we can do it, regardless of who we are playing.

"I've had a few messages off people – good luck and bad luck. Some of them have been giving me a bit of stick but I think some of them are hoping Coventry win for my sake. There will be a few of them sat in the Coventry end.

"It will be nice moment for me, but I’m just thinking about getting the three points for Coventry like every other player in the dressing room.”

The picture looks gloomy for the Sky Blues, after losing to fourth bottom Bristol City on Easter Monday and stretching the gap to safety to four points.

But former St Theodore’s pupil Norwood is hopeful of a happy ending.

“Up until Monday we’d been playing really well and there’s no reason why we can’t do that again,” he said.

"Nobody wants to be involved in a relegation scrap, but it will stand you in good stead for the rest of your career. You know what’s required of you in that situation; what you have to do to stay in the team because the manager believes he can trust you.

"We killed ourselves on Monday by conceding so early in the second half. We’d spoken about keeping it tight for 15 minutes and keeping their crowd quiet because we’d done that in the first half and they were turning.

"That gave them some momentum and they pinned us in.

"It's very disappointing because it was a good chance to pull away from the relegation zone. We think we let ourselves down with our performance; we don’t think it was good enough.

"We were very down in the changing room but after an hour and a half on the bus we started to talk to each other, thought about what we’d done wrong, and we’ve put that behind us now.

"We can’t change what happened; looking forward to making amends on Saturday.”

Norwood turned 21 yesterday and is planning a night of celebrations in Burnley tomorrow night.

He just hopes he is in a party mood.