MANCHESTER City striker Gareth Taylor is set to join the Clarets to bolster manager Stan Ternent's striking resources.

Taylor is back in the City squad for their FA Cup fifth-round tie at Liverpool tomorrow where he is set to start on the bench.

But the 27-year-old is ready to link up with Burnley next week and could sign in time to face Fulham at Turf Moor on Tuesday night.

Ternent has been on the look-out for added firepower in recent weeks and the former Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United front man will be a welcome arrival.

Manchester City boss Joe Royle confirmed: "I need Gareth for the cup game tomorrow because we're a bit short up front but next week I expect a loan deal with Burnley to go through."

Taylor started just eight League games for City last season but scored five times and also had loan spells with QPR and Port Vale.

He is the leading scorer in the Premier Reserve League this season with 12 goals but hasn't figured in the first-team picture at Maine Road and havig rejected chances to move to Holland is being allowed to join Burnley instead.

The Somerset-born striker, who is out of contract in the summer, started his career ar Bristol Rovers before joining Palace for £750,000 in September, 1995.

He made just 22 appearances for the London club before joining Sheffield United where he scored 24 League goals in 56 starts to persuade City to pay £400,000 for his services in November, 1998.

Leaving Turf Moor is Clarets goalkeeper Craig Mawson, who has joined Halifax Town and was standing by for a Football League debut this afternoon. The 21-year-old completed his move to the Third Division club yesterday after playing for Town's reserves in mid-week and with regular number one Lee Butler injured was added to the Halifax squad for their game at Southend today.

"He hasn't had the opportunity with the two goalkeepers that we've got and I was prepared to let him go and try and move on his career. I want to help the lads where I can," said Ternent.

Meanwhile, Burnley kicked off a spell of three games in eight days at Grimsby Town today with midfield man Lennie Johnrose looking to follow the example of local rivals Preston North End.

Preston recently lost five games in a row but three straight wins have propelled them to within three points of the top-six.

And Johnrose said: "It's not panic stations but this division is such that you can quite easily get dragged down towards the bottom. Obviously wer're not looking that far ahead but the sooner we get a win the better for all concerned.

"Preston were having a similar run and now they've chucked out three results on the bounce and all of a sudden people are talking about them being the play-offs again. So if we could have a good eight days hopefully people will be talking about us in the same way." The play-offs are a long way off for Burnley but they will continue to hold onto a highly respectable top-ten spot if they can stop the rot after seven defeats in nine games.

"I think we are in a realistic position. We are tenth in the table. We hope to stay around tenth and people tend to forget that," Johnrose added.

"Hopefully with a couple of results it will all change and the optimism goes again.

"The manager has said all along that we've got to stay up. That's still our priority and we haven't amassed enough points to say that we're safe yet. Hopefully we'll do that in the next week or so and we'll try and go on from there."