LUKAS Jutkiewicz is relishing the prospect of fighting for his place up front as Burnley look for a new attacking partnership.

The departure of Danny Ings has created a gap in the front two, while a long-term injury to Ashley Barnes has led to another opening in the forward line.

Barnes was Ings’ most frequent strike partner last season, scoring five goals in 28 Premier League starts.

In Burnley’s last Championship season, it was Sam Vokes.

The Wales international finished second top scorer in 2013/14 - chipping in with 20 league goals to Ings’ 21 - and manager Sean Dyche will be hopeful of him rediscovering that form after his first full pre-season for two years, having played only a small part last season after recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate knee ligament.

Jutkiewicz’s prolific pre-season former last year led to him starting the Clarets’ top flight campaign. But he struggled to transfer his summer strike rate into the league and failed to register a competitive goal last season.

But a goal in each of Burnley’s opening two friendlies is a statement of intent from the striker, and he is aiming to do enough to stake his claim up front.

“That’s the way that the manager works. You come in for pre-season and everyone has a clean slate and it’s up to everyone to impress him and try to put their name forward for the start of the season,” said the 26-year-old.

After scoring first in a 2-1 win over Swiss side Etoile Carouge at the end of their five-day training camp in France, Jutkiewicz followed it up with Burnley’s first in a 4-2 defeat to League Two neighbours Accrington Stanley, converting the penalty he earned.

“A penalty is an opportunity to score a goal and I feel comfortable taking them, so if I’m on the pitch when we get the next one, I’d be happy to take it,” said Jutkiewicz, who while pleased to add to his tally was disappointed with the outcome of the game.

However, the striker stressed that fitness was the priority at this early stage of pre-season, with Burnley looking to step up their summer schedule against Rangers at Ibrox tonight (kick-off 7.45pm).

“Obviously no one likes to lose games as professionals, you pride yourself on that, so that’s a disappointing aspect, but it’s all about game time,” he continued.

“It’s our first proper competitive match and the most important thing is getting fitness into your legs and that’s the aim of pre-season for us.

“The way that we started wasn’t actually terrible in terms of us having a lot of the ball and then it just seemed that out of nowhere they had three shots and scored three goals so it was a bit of a shell-shock.

“But after that once we composed ourselves. I thought we controlled the rest of the first half and managed to pull a couple of goals back.

“It’s always frustrating to lose games. As professionals you want to win every game you play in, but at the end of the day I think the most important thing at this early stage is getting the fitness into the legs.

“That was our first game (domestically) and it’s all about gearing ourselves up and getting ourselves in the perfect condition to start against Leeds.”