A PERSONAL touch from Clarets boss Sean Dyche helped attract a season-best crowd to Turf Moor on Saturday as Burnley went three points clear at the top of the Championship.

The official attendance of 16,074 was almost 4,000 more than the club’s average gate so far this season, surpassing the previous best of 15,699 in the East Lancashire derby against Blackburn last month.

And some lucky supporters were talked into a ticket for the 2-0 win against Queen’s Park Rangers by Dyche himself, who was helping out with the club’s new call centre.

Dyche and goalkeeper Tom Heaton made the first calls, speaking to a number of supporters to discover their reasons for not renewing season tickets this season.

The call centre is the brainchild of co-chairman John Banaszkiewicz, who is steering the drive to win back fans.

He said: “We have had a fantastic start to the season and are close to breaking records and we wanted to be able to appeal to fans to come on down and watch this special team.

“We are particularly targeting lapsed season ticket holders, while always being aware there will be many varying reasons why those supporters are either unwilling or unable to attend on a regular basis.”

One fan who received a call from Dyche, Gary Noonan, was impressed that the manager had gone out of his way to talk to supporters.

He said: “It’s nice that he found time to call us and shows how involved he is at every level of the club.

“You wouldn’t get that from a lot of clubs and it’s quite pleasing to know that they care.

“I’ve been a season ticket holder in the past but it’s not cheap to follow your team – almost £1,000 a year for me and my wife.

“We decided to see how we started and play it game by game and obviously it’s been fantastic this season. I don’t want to miss a game.”

The club will release details of a half-season ticket offer next month.