NEW Year means a new life for Frank Sinclair and family.

After six hectic months commuting between Turf Moor, his temporary base in Manchester and the family home in London, Sinclair is about to put down new roots in the North.

And after celebrating Christmas by signing a two-year contact extension to tie him to Turf Moor until 2007, he is now in the perfect frame of mind to ring in the New Year with a victory against former club Leicester.

Sinclair, 33, said: "Obviously I have been looking forward to this game and it's one I will want to win that little bit more than most.

"I've been made to feel very welcome from the first day I signed for Burnley. With the way last season ended for me at Leicester, it was just a relief to get playing again and Steve Cotterill gave me an ideal opportunity.

"I spoke to a few clubs last summer, but once I knew he wanted me, there was no hesitation coming up here.

"He was the one who wanted me the most and you can't put a price on that when you are looking to make a big decision."

Sinclair, who ended six seasons with Leicester to join the Clarets on an initial 12-month deal, added: "I'd been talking to the gaffer privately for a couple of months about the new contract and obviously I'm delighted to finally have it settled.

"I'm happy, the football is great and the opportunity arose to stay for longer, so I jumped at it.

"Getting the extra two years is ideal because it now means I can now look to get my family up here, get settled and concentrate solely on the football.

"At the turn of the year I'll get them up here and it will save me an awful lot of travelling back down to London.

"They have been down there for a long time and I'm used to all the travelling from my six years with Leicester.

"I came to Burnley last summer and you quickly adapt to being on the motorway for a couple of hours longer than normal.

"I've been flying back and forth as much as I can, but at the end of the day this is where I work and this is where I need to be.

"Hopefully now, the football will improve and I can get better as a result."

Sinclair, who has helped improve Burnley's defence immeasurably following the debacle of the previous two years, is available again to challenge Gary Cahill and John McGreal for a place in the starting line-up against Leicester.

An untimely two-match ban made his Christmas a time for family, rather than football.

And the rugged defender, cautioned ten times in 23 Burnley starts, feels he has been unfairly targeted by Championship referees.

He said: "Hopefully I can get a run of games now that I've got another suspension out of the way.

"I don't think I've deserved 10 bookings, but I seem to have developed a bit of a reputation with referees down the years.

"Sometimes I get booked for trivial things that other players get away with, but making tackles is all part and parcel of being a centre half and sometimes you suffer the consequences."

It's a certainty that, if selected, Sinclair will add extra bite to his tackles against his former club, who are finding consistency hard to come by under new manager Craig Levein.

Four games without a win and only one goal in that time meant very little festive cheer for fans of the Foxes.

And with the Clarets on a high following the thrilling Turf Moor victory over Wigan earlier this week, Sinclair is confident of a fifth successive home win to celebrate what he hopes will materialise into a play-off push next year.

He added: "I have a lot of good friends at Leicester and it's strange that things haven't happened for them, so this is definitely a game we can win.

"Last summer you would have thought they would be one of the teams up there challenging, but they brought in quite a lot of players while others left and they don't quite seem to have adapted to the changes or the way Micky Adams wanted them to play.

"The new manager has since come in and I know the boys like him and will be looking to pick up, but it's hard in this league and that's why we should be confident about whoever we play.

"If you said we would end the first half of the season in mid-table, I think most people would have been happy.

"Obviously the way things have gone, we are now being a lot more ambitious and looking at the top six.

"We're not that far off and the New Year period will be important.

"We have some big games against teams around us and come mid-January, I think we will know whether we have a realistic chance of being around for the run-in."