So far as getting a good start goes, you would have to say that Eddie Howe has pretty much nailed it during his first week at the helm.

A solid if unmemorable performance and point at Scunthorpe United, three points at Portsmouth, progression to the last 16 of the FA Cup and the capture of one of the Football League’s most exciting rising stars in the form of Swindon Town’s Charlie Austin is none too shabby a way in which to lay down your marker in your first few days in your new job.

One might say that recording a first Fratton Park win for over a generation was no mean feat.

But then, given Burnley’s abysmal away record, scoring any kind of victory away from Turf Moor is worthy of note.

Granted, the Clarets may have ridden their luck on occasion in the second half against Steve Cotterill’s men, but few and far between are the occasions when teams playing away .... from home will not come under pressure.

You don’t need to be a professional sports psychologist to know that confidence counts for a lot in football.

Similarly encouraging is the fact that the Clarets have negotiated their way to the last sixteen of the FA Cup.

There were banana-skins around last weekend in the form of Crawley and Brighton and although Burton may not have provided the stiffest of opposition, at least the Clarets avoided the ignominy of an embarrassing exit.

There’s a lot of talk about how the grand old competition is losing much of its lustre.

Try telling that to Burnley fans who have the sniff of a potential quarter-final in their nostrils if they can overcome the not insurmountable obstacle that is West Ham United.

Cup runs matter to fans. They fire the imagination: as does the signing of a highly promising young striker who has been busy filling his boots in the lower leagues.

And given the air of flatness that has pervaded Turf Moor for a year or more, boosts like this can only help in re-capturing that all important feel-good factor.