Burnley boss Eddie Howe sure Clarets can rediscover road glory (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Burnley boss Eddie Howe sure Clarets can rediscover road glory

12:47pm Friday 21st September 2012 in Sport

MANAGER Eddie Howe admits Burnley’s lack of an away point is a concern.

But he believes his side is capable of rediscovering the winning habit they enjoyed on the road last season.

The Clarets claimed 10 Championship wins on their travels in the 2011/12 campaign – one away from equalling a club league record.

However, they have lost their first three away games of this season, with tomorrow’s trip to Derby County coming on the back of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss at Leicester City, in which the Foxes came back from behind to win.

Burnley followed up an opening day win over Bolton Wanderers with back-to-back defeats at Middlesbrough and newly promoted Huddersfield Town.

They were again faced with back-to-back away games following last weekend’s 5-2 home win over Peterborough United, and fell at the first hurdle to the Foxes.

But Howe is confident that they can start picking up points, and plans to start at Pride Park tomorrow.

“I think it’s always a concern when you’re losing on the road,” said the Burnley boss. “But we had an excellent away record last year and I don’t think much has changed.

“I think we’ll pick up points sooner rather than later.”

Asked if grinding out an “ugly point” would help, he added: “It probably would. If we could have got a late equaliser (at Leicester) it would have been a great result for us but now we’ve got to look to Saturday at Derby and try to get a points there.”

Howe admits results on the road have made for a frustrating start to the season, but stressed Burnley did not have a monopoly on away day disappointments.

“It’s that type of league. I don’t think we’re alone in that respect,” he said.

“For whatever reason this year it’s been quite hard to win away from home this year for several teams.”

Howe did, however, find positives from Wednesday’s game at the King Power Stadium in Brian Stock’s full league debut.

“I thought Brian did well. He was excellent in the first part of the game when we trusted him and gave him the ball,” said the Burnley boss.

“When we stopped passing the ball a bit it changed. His strength is he needs the ball to be really affective.

“I think the team’s seen what a good passer of the ball and how composed he is as well, hopefully that’s a good sign.”

Howe is hoping to have Charlie Austin available tomorrow, after the top scorer was ruled out against Leicester because of a minor hip injury.

But the Clarets chief praised Martin Paterson, who was called on to lead the line despite fears that he might not be fit enough to play in midweek after recently recovering from a recurring hamstring injury.

“We had to protect him and take him off after 60 minutes, so hopefully he’s come through okay,” said Howe.

“The game being on a Wednesday helped and gave him an extra day (to recover from Saturday).

“We were confident enough and he was confident enough that he’d be fine.”

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