ONE game in a claret and blue shirt was enough to confirm Ian Wright's belief that Burnley are genuine promotion prospects.

The former England striker's much-heralded Burnley debut ended in a 0-0 draw with third-placed Wigan Athletic at a packed Turf Moor.

But despite seeing a nine-match winning run at home come to an end, Wright drew plenty of encouragement from the Clarets' performance.

He said: "I think we are easily promotion candidates from what I saw. If Wigan are, with all due respect, then I feel that we are, especially the way we played in the second half.

"And I hope I can do something to really push that forward.

"It was great to play 90 minutes and I thought we dominated the second half. We restricted them to one chance in the second half and we were comfortable. It was just unlucky that we didn't nick it. I was really impressed with the way we played."

Wright was unable to open his Second Division account following his dramatic mid-week move from Celtic.

But the 36-year-old goalscorer looked a class act and went close a number of times to extending his record of finding the net on all his previous club debuts. "That's what I'm here for and I want to score. I got some half-chances and, with more games, I think I'll be taking those.

"The goalie made a couple of good saves but that's what he's there for," he added. Wright's debut boosted the gate to 20,435, comfortably the best in the Second Division this season.

He was given a rapturous reception by the Burnley fans and revelled in his new surroundings. "It was blinding. Ever since I came up here the other day and people realised that I was going to sign for Burnley everybody was really excited about it and they showed me that in the welcome they gave me. It was really nice.

"There was a nice atmosphere in the dressing room and it was everything I expected it to be.

"We played some good stuff in the second half and it was unfortunate we didn't win," he added.

Wright's signing has given Burnley's promotion campaign a major tonic at a crucial time.

He looked as though he has more than a potential 19 games left in him but whether Scunthorpe, Wembley or somewhere in between will be his last port of call remains to be seen.

"It goes where Stan wants it to go and we'll sit down and talk about that," Wright added.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.