BURNLEY boss Stan Ternent will demand the same again from his players in the second half of the season to guarantee a tilt at promotion.
The Clarets wrapped up the first half of their campaign - and the last century of football at Turf Moor - by beating Oxford United 3-2 thanks to two Andy Payton goals in the last 11 minutes.
That lifted them back up to fourth place in Division Two and boss Ternent is looking for a similar 43-point haul from now until May to secure a top-six slot and the possibility of automatic promotion.
He said: "We're three points behind the target of two points a game which is championship form. But the way things are going it might not be enough.
"Who knows? But I think we'll be there or thereabouts at the end. If we repeat what we've done in the first half of the season in the second half, then that will be quite a handy points total.
"And if it's not enough for automatic promotion then perhaps we'll get a second chance in the top six.
"But there's a long, long way to go.
"We've been in and around that top six all the way and there's no reason why we can't maintain that."
The Clarets bounced back from their Boxing Day defeat at Bury in a Turf Moor thriller that saw Payton grab his second hat-trick of the season to turn around a 2-1 deficit.
Ternent added: "It was an important win for us and we showed fantastic character and resilience on the back of the Bury match to come from behind twice.
"We left it late but I felt we thoroughly deserved to win the match on chances created. "It was a long time in coming and it was a very exciting game and all credit to the players for sticking at it.
"We played very well, although I felt that we gave two poor goals away and they made it difficult for us.
"But I can't emphasise enough the resilience of the players. They again did very well."
Payton's last-minute winner took him up to 13 League goals for the season and ensured a happy ending to an afternoon that had started with a parade of the 1959/60 League Championship-winning team.
"Payt's has done it all his career and he keeps on doing it. He gets a lot of credit for the goals and deservedly so, but it was a very, very good all-round team performance and some very good individual performances," Ternent added.
The Clarets' leading scorer has now set his sights on improving on last season's mark of 20 Second Division goals and 23 in all.
"Now I want to beat last year's tally and try and string together a few more consecutive goalscoring games," said Payton, who was back on the scoresheet for the first time in five games.
"The first one was a penalty which you should score really, the second one Paul Weller put a great ball in and then the third one came to me about a yard out which is what you dream about really.
"There were only a couple of minutes left so we were just delighted to get the three points and keep it going.
"It looked for quite a while that we were going to get beaten but we stuck at it, even though we didn't play that well in the second half. "We played well in the first half without scoring as many as we would have liked but we've won again so we're delighted."
Payton was on the bench at Bury but shook of the after-effects of flu to return to the starting line-up along with Mitchell Thomas and Paul Cook.
"I watched the game on Sunday and the lads were a bit unlucky, two of their goals were unbelievable really.
"But we bounced back and kept the home run going. We're into double figures of wins now and they (the top teams) have all got to come here.
"It was good for the crowd and to have the championship team and the cup final team here was brilliant. It was a good day," he added.
Left-back Gordon Armstrong missed yesterday's game with a foot injury he sustained at Bury and will also be ruled out of next Monday's trip to Notts County because of a one-match ban.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article