BURNLEY goalkeeper Danny Coyne will be out for three months.

The Welsh international suffered a detached tendon in his leg during Saturday's 3-0 defeat against QPR and won't now be fit until well into the new year.

However, better news arrived ahead of tomorrow's visit of Ipswich Town as Richard Chaplow's cartilage injury is not as bad as first thought.

The midfielder still faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines, but it is likely to be one month rather than the two that was originally feared.

Burnley boss Steve Cotterill said: "Danny will probably be out for a minimum of three months while Richard is probably going to be out for one month.

"As it stands at the moment the early part of those times neither player will have surgery. Richard has to rest for a couple of weeks and Danny cannot do anything for at least six weeks and then you have the muscle wastage and rehabilitation to consider.

"By having complete rest, we are really hoping that works because if it doesn't and they need operations, they will be out for longer.

"But that is the only thing we can do because it is the surgeon's advice.

"They are going to be long-standing injuries and at this stage I just don't know whether we can get reinforcements.

"To be honest it's bad enough not having either of them tomorrow so to not have them beyond that is doubly bad."

Meanwhile, Cotterill is backing Robbie Blake to get back on the goalscoring trail tomorrow.

The Burnley skipper goes in search of his first goal in five games after hitting a rare lean patch in front of goal.

Blake, now operating as Burnley's only fit striker following Ian Moore's recent knee operation, spurned two glorious chances to take his tally for the season into double figures at Leeds United in midweek.

But Cotterill is urging the eight-goal hitman to end all the recent controversy over his '100th' career goal by steering Burnley to a first home league win in over a month against Joe Royle's Tractor Boys.

He said: "Technically, Robbie is the best striker I have worked with. He sets himself high standards and sometimes he sets them too high because if one little thing goes wrong for him he lets his head go down.

"But I wouldn't swap Robbie for anyone and I don't care whether he's on 99 or 100 goals.

"That's what he does best and Robbie will be back among the goals soon, don't worry about that."

The Clarets are are again down to the bare bones for tomorrow's Turf Moor clash, with Ian Moore and Jean-Louis Valois both sidelined through injury, Michael Duff serving a one-match ban and injury doubts over John McGreal and Graham Branch.

Second-placed Town arrive at Turf Moor brimming with confidence following the 5-1 midweek mauling of Sheffield United - in which they set a new club record of scoring in 29 consecutive league games.

BURNLEY fans are being advised to turn up early tomorrow if they wish to purchase tickets for the Carling Cup clash with Spurs next week.

The Turf Moor ticket office will be open on Saturday morning and up to kick off for the purchase of tickets for tomorrow's home game with Ipswich Town as well as Tuesday's fourth round tie.

But with long queues expected, club chiefs are urging supporters to arrive in plenty of time.

Tickets for the Spurs game will also be on sale on Monday and Tuesday during normal office hours, category B prices applying.