Burnley keeper taking Austin's goals for Grant-ed (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Burnley keeper taking Austin's goals for Grant-ed

1:10pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in Sport By Suzanne Geldard, Burnley FC reporter

LEE Grant joked that he didn’t even congratulate Charlie Austin after what proved to be the winner against Blackpool, because it is becoming such a regular occurrence.

“I’m not even interested because it’s a bit of a given at the minute. But I said to him ‘I will congratulate you on your performance because you played well aside from that’,” smiled the Clarets keeper after celebrating a first clean sheet since the opening day win over Bolton Wanderers, as well as the three points.

Austin took his tally for the season to 16 – with at least one goal in each of his last seven games – to get the post-Eddie Howe era off to a successful start.

And Grant admitted there seems to be no stopping the striker. Even in training.

“I actually nearly fell out with him in training on Thursday or Friday because everything he was hitting was going in, either off his head or his shoulder and going in the top corner,” he said.

“It was frustrating for me as a goalkeeper because you want to be on the end of things yourself and saving things, and I nearly fell out with him.

“Every shot, every strike is important for him. It doesn’t matter if it’s training or out there in front of 20,000 or the Sky cameras, it makes no difference for him.

“It’s good to see him on a really good run, he deserves it.

“He’s been fantastic and I’m really pleased for him because he is working hard for it as well.

“But we’re running out of things to say about him. It’s just rolling on at the minute.

“I’ve told him not to do anything different from what he’s doing.

“At the minute everything he touches is ending up in the back of the net and long may that continue.”

And praise was reciprocated after Grant’s spectacular double save in the second half, denying Alex Baptiste and then Gary Taylor-Fletcher, ensured the win and the clean sheet, with Austin the first on the scene to congratulate the Burnley stopper.

Caretaker boss Terry Pashley later compared the save to Gordon Banks thwarting Pele in 1970.

“I’ll take that!” he said.

“We do put a lot of work into the second save and getting up as quick as possible, you’re taught it from a young age, so I was really pleased.

“I was pleased with the first one more than anything because I wasn’t even sure I was going to get there.

I touched the first one onto the post but I wasn’t sure even after I’d touched it that it was going to stay out of the back of the net. Thankfully the post was there as well and it was just a case of getting up as quick as possible, and a little bit of hope that he was going to fire it my way.

“I’m delighted with it.

“I was just happy it stayed out and we got the right result and a clean sheet.”

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