Clarets cast-off Alan Lee admits he should have done better at Turf Moor.

Lee failed to hit it off at Burnley following his £100,000 move from Aston Villa 18 months ago.

His stop-start Clarets career was disrupted by a knee injury which sidelined him for over three months of his only full season at the club.

But the 22-year-old striker refused to use that as an excuse for a return of just one senior goal.

"Before that I should have done better anyway," he said.

"I can't say I was disappointed because you make your own opportunities. If you play well enough you can't be left out.

"Obviously I would have liked to have come away with a better goalscoring record and it would have been nice to have scored at Turf Moor. But I didn't play that much and it's not something I think about too much."

Lee has doubled that goal tally since joining Second Division play-off hopefuls Rotherham United, who last week splashed out £150,000 to convert his loan spell into a permanent stay and make the former Republic of Ireland under-21 international their joint record buy.

And he hasn't taken long to bounce back from his largely unproductive spell at Turf Moor, where he was limited to just a couple of senior starts and a clutch of substitute's appearances.

"It didn't cost me a lot of time and I didn't have a long spell without first-team football because I was playing at the end of last season.

"It was only really at the start of this season so I can't really complain and as long as I'm happy, that's the most important thing," he said.

Lee, who signed a three-and-half-year contract with the South Yorkshire club, scored one and made the other two as Rotherham won 3-0 at Brentford on Saturday to go third in the table. And the re-vitalised player has been a big hit at Millmoor, where the fans started a fund to secure the player's signature.

"I'm delighted with the way it's gone. I had an inkling that if things worked out I would definitely sign.

"I've had a great time and the results speak for themselves.

"I have just bought a house in the Burnley area but as soon as the personal terms were right I had no doubt in my mind," he said.

And Lee is delighted to be playing regular first-team football for the first time in his career bar previous short loan spells with Port Vale and Torquay.

"I can't describe the difference," he added.

"It makes me a better player. You can't live up to your potential in the reserves. You're on a hiding to nothing. Either you play well and it's expected of you or you play badly and people say you should be doing a lot better. You can't win."

With Lee now producing the goods, Rotherham boss Ronnie Moore is delighted with his new acquisition.

He said: "He needs a bit of extra work on his finishing but the goals will start to come. It may mean a few extra afternoons on the training ground but he's big enough to cope with that.

"I'm not complaining about the flaws in his game though. If he didn't have any he would probably have us over £1 million."

And Burnley won't complain if Lee goes on to bigger and better things in the future, having included a sell-on fee in the transfer package.

Paul Robinson's loan spell with Burnley has been extended for a further month, as reported in later editions of yesterday's Lancashire Evening Telegraph.