This FA Cup clash was billed as an audition for many in the Clarets squad.

If that was in Sean Dyche’s mind as he made eight changes for this third round tie on the back of three straight Premier League defeats, then some will feel they’ve done enough to feature in the much more significant production at Chelsea on Saturday.

At the head of the queue, and in the lead role, is Jay Rodriguez.

He had pushed and probed with his performances off the bench in recent weeks, often a bright spark on some difficult days for Burnley.

Here he hit all the right notes, a nuisance to the Peterborough backline from the off, he pounced to score the opener after Chris Wood initially failed to complete the job.

Rodriguez then rounded things off with a clinical finish one-on-one in the second period, making it six goals since his return home in the summer.

The 30-year-old has been made to wait his turn, just eight of his 23 appearances coming from the start this season, but now surely Dyche has no choice but to give him a run in the side, especially given Ashley Barnes was absent from the squad on Saturday lunchtime due to his troublesome groin.

Rodriguez’s second on Saturday came from a fine pass from Aaron Lennon, another one to push his claim with a busy display that with this assist, included some real end product.

On the other wing, much was expected of Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s first start since October and for the first 45 minutes the Icelander delivered, bringing real creativity out wide and quality from set pieces.

Unfortunately, a hamstring issue, that being the injury that has sidelined him of late, returned to cut his afternoon short at half-time in was the only real downer of the afternoon.

A smooth run would have likely seen him join Rodriguez in the line up at Chelsea this weekend.

Further back there were plenty of eyes on Joe Hart on the day he was linked with being a potential Tom Heaton replacement at Aston Villa after the former Clarets favourite was ruled out for the season.

Dyche insisted January departures were “highly unlikely” post-match and commended Hart on what was a solid display on just his second outing of the season.

He was sold down the river by a poor Matt Lowton header for Posh’s first goal five minutes before the break despite it never looking good for a goalkeeper when he is comprehensively rounded, by Ivan Toney in this case, before the striker scores into an empty net.

By that point though the game was all but up for the League One visitors.

After Rodriguez’s opener eight minutes in, Erik Pieters marked his return to the Burnley side with a sweet strike from 25 yards to double the lead on the quarter hour.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson was well within his rights post-match to question Rodriguez’s position as, standing offside, he dodged out of the way of the Dutchman’s shot as it whistled past goalkeeper Christy Pym.

A key moment in the game’s eventual outcome then came midway through the half, Reece Brown firing wide at one end before Jeff Hendrick, who again proved his power to frustrate in the middle of the park, saw his shot take a huge deflection on its way in.

The Clarets were 3-0 up after 23 minutes and that was seemingly that.

Toney’s goal, his 17th of the season, did stir the visitors into life somewhat with George Boyd at the heart of their good play on his return to Turf Moor but Rodriguez restored the three-goal advantage seven minutes after the interval to end any debate about the final outcome.

A VAR check after an apparent push from Mark Beevers on James Tarkowski, one of the three players alongside Wood and Jack Cork to remain after the Aston Villa defeat, was then needed to make absolutely sure of Posh’s second from Ricky Jade-Jones 15 minutes from time after Toney’s effort had been cleared off the line by Pieters.

It mattered not in the final outcome and while sterner tests await the Clarets in an intimidating looking run in the league, this was a much-needed pick-me-up in more ways than one.