EVER-PRESENT Sam Vokes wants to cap a new contract with a personal best and promotion.

The striker is one away from matching a career best goals return, after scoring his 11th of the season in Saturday’s 4-3 FA Cup third round defeat at boyhood club Southampton.

Vokes is ready to break that barrier in the near future, and boost Burnley’s Premier League push after signing a two-year contract extension this week.

“I’m not setting targets, I just want to take every game as it comes, but as a striker you want to be scoring goals in every game,” said the Wales international, who after helping to fire the Clarets into the automatic promotion places by the halfway stage of the season hopes they can go the distance.

“We’ve had a great start to the season and we’ve got a good enough squad to push on,” the 24-year-old continued.

“We’ve proved to the league this year, and everyone else, that we’ve got the strength to do that and keep going for the next four months.

“It’s a physically demanding league with the amount of fixtures we’ve got so it’s important that we keep going and keep strong.”

Vokes’ potent partnership with top scorer Danny Ings has been a driving factor behind their success.

Between them the pair have scored 72 per cent of the club’s league goals, with 26 out of Burnley’s 36 in the Championship, and 31 combined in all competitions.

“That’s not too bad, but we’ll try to up that percentage,” smiled Vokes.

“We’ve started off well, we’re only halfway through so hopefully we can chip in with a few more.

“From the first game of the season we seem to have worked well together.”

Vokes has praised the impact manager Sean Dyche has had on his development this season too.

“I feel a lot more confident in my own play and feel like I’ve improved a lot under the current manager,” said Vokes.

“On a personal level we’ve done a lot of work together on and off the field and it seems to be paying off.

“In the first year I was limited to chances in the side due to probably Charlie (Austin) doing so well.

“Now this year I’ve got my chance and it seems to be paying off, and the club have rewarded me (with a new deal).”

Of his contract extension, Vokes added: “The time was right.

“I’m at a good place in my career and I wanted to secure it here.

“It’s something we’ve been working on and we’ve managed to do it this week.”

With Vokes and Ings the club’s only recognised senior centre forwards, the search for strikers continues. But reports that the Clarets have bid for Middlesbrough striker Lukas Jutkiewicz are wide of the mark.