BURNLEY today rejected Wigan's £500,000 bid for captain and leading goalscorer Robbie Blake.

The promotion-chasing Latics contacted Turf Moor chiefs yesterday with their official offer.

But Wigan, bankrolled by multi-millionaire businessman Dave Whelan, were today informed that Blake is not for sale.

Burnley chief executive Dave Edmundson revealed: "We had an official offer from Wigan yesterday lunchtime and I put it to the chairman, Barry Kilby, and the manager, Steve Cotterill.

"The response was immediate and we will today be informing Wigan we have turned down the offer."

Wigan are the second club in as many weeks to make moves to prise the playmaker away from Turf Moor, following Nottingham Forest's audacious two-for-one player swap offer a fortnight ago.

Latics manager Paul Jewell is known to be an admirer of Blake, who he managed during a two-year spell at Bradford City between 1998-2000.

Jewell has since steered Wigan to the top of the Championship table, aided and abetted by one of the most prolific strike partnerships in the division in Nathan Ellington and Jason Roberts.

However, when you are chasing promotion to the Premiership and the pot of gold that comes with top-flight football, you can never have too much of a good thing.

So two weeks ago Latics chairman Whelan, the owner of the JJB sports empire, visited Turf Moor himself to witness 28-year-old Blake score the winner in the 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

Since then the Clarets captain's stock has risen further, with two more winning goals in successive 1-0 wins taking his total to 11 for the season and sparking yesterday's latest bid.

However, following last weekend's victory over Millwall, Blake himself came out to reassure Burnley fans all the recent transfer talk was not unsettling him.

Blake added that he was "going nowhere" and was fully committed to the Clarets cause for the remaining 18 months of his contract.

Burnley Reserves' scheduled trip to face Oldham Athletic in a Pontin's League game this afternoon has been cancelled.

The Clarets will now make the short trip on Wednesday, April 6 (2pm).

Meanwhile, Burnley have received a home draw in the Lancashire FA Youth Cup early next year.

Blackpool will be the visitors to Turf Moor in a competition that saw Burnley reach the final last year before losing to Oldham in extra time at Turf Moor.