BURNLEY'S beleaguered players were remaining tight-lipped ahead of tonight's Red Rose derby clash with Preston North End at Turf Moor.

Now they are determined to do their talking on the pitch.

None of Stan Ternent's squad was interested in talking about the debacle against Watford at the weekend nor discussing the prospects for tonight's game with their Lancashire rivals.

They were just determined to focus on the job in hand, securing the win that would take them level on points with Craig Brown's side and beyond the magical 50 point mark.

Assistant manager Sam Ellis insisted that the players are not looking over their shoulders at the bottom three in fear of somehow being dragged into a relegation fight. The fact is they probably already have enough points in the bag to be safe.

But 50 points is always Stan Ternent's target at the start of any season and having got to within one win of that total way back on March 1 it is high time it was passed.

"The players are pretty relaxed about that at the moment," said Ellis but there is no doubt they will be far happier if they go into the tricky away game at Norwich City on Saturday with a first win since the opening day of last month.

The concerns about the leaky defence have deflected attention from the efforts of the attack and Burnley's leading scorer Gareth Taylor now has 16 to his name this season, a total level with his best ever return a year ago.

With seven games to go he is now setting a personal target of 20 as he explained: "After the hat trick against Watford that has to be possible."

Taylor, pictured below, has been in the best form of his life, much like many other members of Mark Hughes's Wales squad. The feelgood factor that has come out of that teams current form could have a long term benefit for the Clarets.

Another man doing well at international level is fellow striker Dimitri Papadopoulos. He came off the bench on Saturday but will be hoping he might have a bigger part to play tonight.