they have lost just 1 game in 12 :-(
Lanashire Telegraph
BURNLEY manager Owen Coyle is sweating on the fitness of midfield enforcer Chris McCann ahead of tomorrow’s game at Charlton Athletic.
The Dubliner has been rated ‘50-50’ for the trip to The Valley, after limping out of Tuesday night’s impressive win at Coventry City with a leg injury.
But following a string of instrumental performances in Burnley’s run of just one defeat in 12 games, in which he has contributed three goals, Coyle is going to wait as long as possible before naming his starting 11.
"Chris McCann is a big concern after coming off the other night,” said the Burnley boss.
“He has a chance but at this moment he's 50-50. He's been in tremendous form so we'll give him every chance and hopefully he can make it.”
Should McCann be ruled out, the Clarets have options in both Chris Eagles and Robbie Blake, who enhanced their respective bids for a first team place with a goal each in Tuesday night’s comeback at the Ricoh Arena.
Eagles has been forced to settle for a place on the bench since returning from suspension last month, while Blake has only started the first two league games of the season.
And Coyle admitted he empathised with their desire to start games.
“We all toe the party line. They’re all desperate to start games, and I know that because I’ve been there as a player myself when you feel that you’ve got something to contribute, but I think they do recognise how hard and to what level their team-mates are playing at,” he said.
“Chris, Robbie and young Jay Rodriguez, who I thought was terrific the other night when he came on as well, brought a lot to the game, but they were able to bring that on the back of how well the lads had done before them.
"The lads who had been in there had worked their socks off and gave them the platform to come on and sparkle late in the game.
“I’ve said before that’s it terrific to have very gifted individual players at the football club, but more than that I think we’re about a team work ethic and they’re all responding to that.”
He added: "It's a nice problem to have but that's all you can ask.
"I said to them after the game that if they get an opportunity it's up to them to make sure that they're ready to play.
"The difficulty is there's more than 11 players probably deserving of a starting place. It's not as simple as just going out and picking an 11.
“Stephen Jordan and Christian Kalvenes are giving everything they can to get that left back slot, and Ade (Akinbiyi), Alan Mahon, Kevin McDonald have just come back from injury, Remco van der Schaaf’s ready to play, but such is the form of Grezza (Graham Alexander) it’s a nice problem to have.
"And it’s because they’re pushing each other on in training and in matches and that’s what we want to be about.
“But it's probably the best problem to have in that there are more than 11.
“I think you'd have a problem if you thought there was only six or seven and then you're trying to make it up, that's not the case and long may that continue.”
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