Pashley willing to tackle challenge (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Pashley willing to tackle challenge

1:50pm Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Sport By Suzanne Geldard, Burnley FC reporter

WHATEVER challenges Terry Pashley has faced since taking caretaker charge of the Clarets, he admits none of it will compare to a quest he undertook in the summer.

The 55-year-old joined a clutch of keen cyclists and keen Clarets to ride from the very bottom to the very top of the United Kingdom.

Pashley describes the journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats as “the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life”.

He, along with fellow youth team coach Andy Farrell and ex-Clarets Jamie Hoyland and Les Thompson, scaled some of the steepest inclines in England and Scotland to reach their destination.

His latest task is to help Burnley climb the Championship. It’s an altogether different challenge for the former right back, but another one he has been more than willing to take on.

“It’s just a case of focusing on football. That’s my remit,” said Pashley, who got his temporary tenure off to a winning start against Blackpool on Saturday evening, and is looking to add to that at Bristol City tonight.

“We’ve got to go out and reproduce. Anything less won’t do. We’ve got to be better.

“We just want to keep looking forward.

“We’ve got to get the boys in the right frame of mind, which I know they will be. Physically they’ve got to recover, but I’m sure tonight they will be ready.

“They will really be looking forward to the game to keep that momentum going and build on what they’ve done, and hopefully we can come away with a positive result.

“We’ve had a positive start and now our aim is to build on that.”

Is there a sense that if he can do the epic bike ride he can do anything?

“Land’s End to John O’Groats was totally different to this,” added Pashley, who signed up for the almost 900-mile trek, completed in nine days, to raise funds for the ongoing care of former Burnley defender Gary Parkinson, who is battling Locked-In Syndrome as the