BURNLEY travel to bottom-of-the-table Crewe Alexandra on Saturday with midfield powerhouse Lennie Johnrose determined to secure the Clarets' safety sooner rather than later.

Stan Ternent's side are well on the way to preserving their First Division status with a top 10 finish still in their sights.

And having ended a barren spell of one draw and five defeats with a win over Barnsley in their last League outing 10 days ago, Johnrose is keen to see his team-mates keep the momentum going at Gresty Road.

"Had we not won it becomes a long time before your next League game and the lads were just desperate to put points on the board," said Johnrose, who is forced to sit out the weekend's clash along with Micky Mellon and Ian Cox after collecting his fifth booking of the season against the Tykes.

"We're over the 40-point mark now and the sooner we get to 50 the better for all concerned.

"Our main objective at the start of the season has always been to stay up.

"We got ourselves in a good position and turned Christmas we hit a bit of a bad run.

"But now we want to consolidate the team's performance with a few more victories and stay up there before the end of the season."

West Bromwich Albion avoided the drop from Division One last season with 49 points, while Grimsby boss Lennie Lawrence has called on his side to produce six more wins to make sure they stay up.

That would give the Mariners 48 points with a couple of draws thrown in for good measure making the likely safety target around the 50-point mark.

With Burnley already on 42 that should be a stone-cold certainty and it's the other end of the table the Clarets should continue to concern themselves with.

But naturally nobody at Turf Moor wants to cut it fine and with games to come next month against strugglers Crewe, Grimsby and Huddersfield, Burnley can earn themselves a welcome insurance policy and the chance to plan ahead.

The Clarets will be looking for their first away win in seven attempts at lowly Crewe, where they are guaranteed a sell-out away following.

And Johnrose, who had supplied goals from midfield in two of the last three games, acknowledged the need for some support for leading scorer Andy Payton.

He added: "It's been a long time coming, to be honest. The manager has emphasised the need to share the goals round a little bit. He's absolutely right and fortunately for me it's worked out in the last couple of weeks. We do need to share the goals round and long may it continue.

"I think everyone within the squad needs to chip in. Steve Davis get between his five and ten a season which is tremendous but apart from Payts last season we never really shared it out a lot and it puts a lot of pressure on the team if other people aren't chipping in with goals, so obviously it's something we've got to do.

"I think Bally's been unlucky a few times this season. He's been in the box and and it's just not happened for him but once it drops hopefully he'll start scoring a few as well."

Meanwhile, the Clarets reserves travel to Barnsley tonight looking to get back to winning ways in the Avon Insurance Premier League with manager Stan Ternent set to give one or two of his senior players a run-out.

Former Turf Moor favourite David Eyres has agreed a new contract with Oldham Athletic. The 36-year-old left-sided player has extended his deal at Boundary Park to June 2002 with the option of a further 12 months.

Oldham's climb up Division Two has coincided with Eyres' arrival from Preston and Latics boss Andy Ritchie is delighted to have secured his services for at least another 12 months. TARGET: Lennie Johnrose BURNLEY travel to bottom-of-the-table Crewe Alexandra on Saturday with midfield powerhouse Lennie Johnrose determined to secure the Clarets' safety sooner rather than later.

Stan Ternent's side are well on the way to preserving their First Division status with a top 10 finish still in their sights.

And having ended a barren spell of one draw and five defeats with a win over Barnsley in their last League outing 10 days ago, Johnrose is keen to see his team-mates keep the momentum going at Gresty Road.

"Had we not won it becomes a long time before your next League game and the lads were just desperate to put points on the board," said Johnrose, who is forced to sit out the weekend's clash along with Micky Mellon and Ian Cox after collecting his fifth booking of the season against the Tykes.

"We're over the 40-point mark now and the sooner we get to 50 the better for all concerned.

"Our main objective at the start of the season has always been to stay up.

"We got ourselves in a good position and turned Christmas we hit a bit of a bad run.

"But now we want to consolidate the team's performance with a few more victories and stay up there before the end of the season." West Bromwich Albion avoided the drop from Division One last season with 49 points, while Grimsby boss Lennie Lawrence has called on his side to produce six more wins to make sure they stay up.

That would give the Mariners 48 points with a couple of draws thrown in for good measure making the likely safety target around the 50-point mark.

With Burnley already on 42 that should be a stone-cold certainty and it's the other end of the table the Clarets should continue to concern themselves with.

But naturally nobody at Turf Moor wants to cut it fine and with games to come next month against strugglers Crewe, Grimsby and Huddersfield, Burnley can earn themselves a welcome insurance policy and the chance to plan ahead.

The Clarets will be looking for their first away win in seven attempts at lowly Crewe, where they are guaranteed a sell-out away following.

And Johnrose, who had supplied goals from midfield in two of the last three games, acknowledged the need for some support for leading scorer Andy Payton.

He added: "It's been a long time coming, to be honest. The manager has emphasised the need to share the goals round a little bit. He's absolutely right and fortunately for me it's worked out in the last couple of weeks. We do need to share the goals round and long may it continue.

"I think everyone within the squad needs to chip in. Steve Davis get between his five and ten a season which is tremendous but apart from Payts last season we never really shared it out a lot and it puts a lot of pressure on the team if other people aren't chipping in with goals, so obviously it's something we've got to do.

"I think Bally's been unlucky a few times this season. He's been in the box and and it's just not happened for him but once it drops hopefully he'll start scoring a few as well."

Former Turf Moor favourite David Eyres has agreed a new contract with Oldham Athletic. The 36-year-old left-sided player has extended his deal at Boundary Park to June 2002 with the option of a further 12 months.

Oldham's climb up Division Two has coincided with Eyres' arrival from Preston and Latics boss Andy Ritchie is delighted to have secured his services for at least another 12 months.