BURNLEY have swooped to sign out-of-favour Aston Villa midfielder Peter Whittingham on an initial month's loan.

The England Under-21 international linked up with Steve Cotterill's squad ahead of tonight's rearranged Championship game away to Crewe Alexandra.

Whittingham, who played for Villa in the 3-1 Carling Cup defeat to Burnley earlier this season, is the second player to make the move from Villa Park this season following in the footsteps of Gary Cahill.

And Clarets boss Steve Cotterill, who can also call on Whittingham for this weekend's big FA Cup clash with Blackburn Rovers, again thanked Villa counterpart David O'Leary for helping to boost his numbers.

He said: "Peter has joined us on a month's loan and will be available for tonight's game at Crewe. We are thankful once again to David O'Leary and Roy Aitken at Aston Villa for helping us out and if we can do the same for Peter as we have for Gary Cahill, then we will all be delighted."

Whittingham, who signed a four-year deal with Villa in 2002, has slipped down the pecking order at the Premiership club after making a huge impression last season.

The 20-year-old, picked up by Villa following his release from Coventry, was a regular in O'Leary's side in the first half of the 2003/04 season, but lost his place following a heavy defeat at Bolton in the Carling Cup semi-final.

Since then he has found starts a rare occurrence, making the starting line-up just seven times this season and scoring once in the 3-0 Premiership victory over Portsmouth.

Meanwhile, Cotterill is sweating over the fitness of Cahill (leg) as Burnley look to follow up the weekend victory at Coventry with another three points at Gresty Road.

And with all the buzz around town centering on Sunday's fifth round clash against local rivals Rovers, The Clarets chief urged his players to remain focused on the more immediate task of inching further towards the magical 50-point barrier.

Cotterill said: "I don't think it makes any difference having this game before we play Blackburn. We still have to focus on Crewe, just as we did on Coventry last week.

"I'm not talking about any other games at the moment. I know everyone else is because of the buzz around the place and it's very hard to get away from people asking you about Blackburn.

"But that's how it has to be. We've still got five days before that game and the quicker we get 50 points the better because that will dictate what we do with the rest of our season."