BURNLEY skipper Graham Branch is backing Brian Jensen to return to his beastly best at Crewe today.

The former West Brom stopper will be looking to bounce back from his horror show at Preston last week, when manager Stan Ternent blamed him for four of North End's five goals.

Jensen will be aware that with Glasgow Rangers outcast Jesper Christiansen currently on trial at Turf Moor, Ternent is looking to give himself options between the posts.

A rare clean sheet at Gresty Road would certainly do the Dane's confidence no harm going into the new year.

And Branch believes that once belief starts flowing back through Jensen's veins, he will overcome his worrying confidence crisis.

Branch revealed: "I feel sorry for Brian because he's a big lad and to look at him you would think nothing would bother him.

"But he is very much a confidence player and when the fans were getting on his back earlier in the season it really did affect him.

"All the lads felt sorry for him and then suddenly he went through that really good patch and all the fans were singing "Beast!" again.

"But things can change quite quickly and I'm just hoping Brian can get himself going again and gets the fans back on his side and then he will be brilliant again because there's no doubt that he's a good goalkeeper.

"All he needs is a bit of confidence and that's the same as most players. Confidence can make a decent player either look a world-beater, or exactly the opposite, so if he can get that back on his side he will start keeping clean sheets again and get the fans back on his side."

Branch is confident the Clarets have put their derby day defeat behind them in time for today's Boxing day clash.

He added: "It was just one of those days and to get beat as we did was galling at the time because when you score three goals away from home you expect to get something.

"I probably had the best view from the line and some of the stuff we played was terrific, but some of the goals we conceded were rubbish.

"If we cut the silly mistakes out we are going to beat a lot of teams and that includes Crewe."