9:57am Friday 12th March 2010
By Suzanne Geldard
FOCUSED Burnley manager Brian Laws has challenged his players to climb out of the bottom three tomorrow ... and stay out.
The Clarets will trade places with Wolves if they get one over Mick McCarthy’s men at Turf Moor, more than four weeks after slipping into the relegation zone.
Despite games running out in their quest for Premier League survival, Laws believes the pressure is weighing more heavily on teams around them.
And he has urged his Burnley boys to use outsiders’ lack of expectation, and the incentive of proving their critics wrong, to their advantage.
“When people say you’re not good enough it’s a driver for me,” he said.
“I’ve always been brought up to give everything you can. There’s always someone there to knock you down but you’ve got to pick yourself up. It’s the nature of the beast. You want to prove yourself, and I think it’s important that while there are the knockers out there, they inspire you.
“There’s nothing worse than hearing something bad about yourself. But you can go out then and put it right.
“I’ve worked with clubs all my life with lower finances and managed to over-achieve or over excel every season. You’ve got to rise above and that’s what we’ve go to do here."”
He added: “Pundits are forever battering Burnley and criticising because we’re conceding goals and we’re at the bottom end of the table.
“The good thing is we’ve got an opportunity to prove them all wrong, and that will be the nicest thing of all.
“If people write us off then fine, that's the pressure gone. That gives us a better edge.
"Everybody is expecting us not to be there next season. Well, the so-called experts are, because its little Burnley and we are not going to be in the Premier League next season because they think that we’re not good enough.
"But I don't believe that for one minute. Neither do the players. They are a very positive bunch of lads and there's no reason to think negatively. We've just got to let the others do all the talking and we'll do the rest of the work.
"You can't get away from the media, but you can't let it affect your performances and you have to go out there and play. Enjoy it because this is what we've worked hard for and this is where we want to be.”
Results elsewhere could also do the Clarets a favour as 16th placed West Ham travel to Chelsea, second bottom Hull entertain Arsenal, while Bolton and Wigan - who have a five-point and four-point advantage over Burnley respectively - go head-to-head at the Reebok Stadium.
But Laws refuses to let his focus stray away from Turf Moor.
“I’m not interested in those games. At all,” he said.
“I’m not being flippant with that, we’re just not relying on them. We’re relying on ourselves and what we can affect.
“We can’t affect the other teams.
“We’ve not got to a stage where we have to rely on someone else’s results.
"We’re relying on our own, concentrating and focusing on our own.
“On the other side, Wolves will be coming here to make sure they don’t get beat because they know the consequences.
“It’s a big game for both of us, and I expect it to be a real tough one.”
David Nugent’s midweek equaliser against Stoke continued Burnley’s trend of scoring in every home game this season, and top scorer Steven Fletcher is expected to boost their ammunition after missing the last two games with a broken hand.
“He is a quality player, and you don’t leave quality out,” said Laws.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/trade_directory/