ANDY Payton will return to spearhead the Clarets' attack against Oxford United tomorrow, as Burnley bid to bounce back from yesterday's crushing defeat at Bury.

The Clarets' leading scorer sat on the bench throughout the Gigg Lane disaster after a bout of flu over Christmas.

The illness also completely ruled out key defender Mitchell Thomas, who is less certain to shake off the effects and make a much-needed comeback against Oxford at Turf Moor.

However, Paul Cook will definitely be restored to the starting line-up after his one-match ban, while Payton's return will be a welcome tonic on the back of yesterday's shock 4-2 defeat which saw the Clarets slip to sixth-place in the table.

"I think, hopefully, that Andy will be okay. We'll see how Mitch is. But this virus is knocking about and a few of the lads have had it. "So I'll have a look at it again today and Tuesday and we'll go from there," confirmed manager Stan Ternent, who is glad of the chance to try and get straight back to winning ways.

"I would prefer them all to be fit because I know when they are we will be a match for anyone.

"But I say it again, I don't expect to go through the season and win every game. And it's how you react to adversity that's important," he added.

And the Burnley boss is backing his players to show the right kind of response and make home advantage count against an Oxford side who beat Cambridge United 1-0 yesterday to climb to 16th-place.

Ternent said: "Tomorrow against Oxford at Turf Moor we'll see what the players are made of.

"And I know they will react in the right way, as they always have done. We've done particularly well this season and there's no reason why we can't crack on again, starting tomorrow afternoon." Burnley had an afternoon to forget at a rain-lashed Gigg Lane where they started without three key players, lost Steve Davis to a goalline handball incident after just nine minutes and from the resultant penalty went 2-0 down.

"As I've said all along, these things will be sent to try us throughout the season and yesterday was one of those things," Ternent added.

Bury went 4-0 up by half-time and the Clarets managed just two injury-time replies to merely add an air of respectability to the scoreline as their makeshift side tellingly couldn't make up for the absence of Thomas, Cook and Payton.

"We have no reserve team matches or 'A' team matches over the holiday period so it's difficult to keep them (players not in the team) sharp.

"But in the second half we were far the better side and throughout the match on chances and attempts on goal I would say we were far superior.

"But unfortunately we didn't convert them early in the game and we take it on the chin and hope to bounce back against Oxford," said Ternent, who withdrew Dean West and Micky Mellon at the break and then Glen Little shortly after.

"In the light of 4-0 at half-time I needed just to change it round a little bit and Tuesday was of the utmost importance to us. "We had a little chat at half-time and we decided that we would have a go in the second half. The challenge was not to lose the second half. In fact the challenge was to win the second half and that's what we did. If we had got those goals a little earlier, which we could have done, perhaps it might have been different.

"But we gave ourselves a mountain to climb and unfortunately we couldn't do it. But Tuesday is another day," Ternent added.

Among the few bright spots for Burnley was the performance of Paul Weller in his 30 minutes as a substitute, while Tom Cowan also showed that he is ready to answer the call should it come tomorrow.

Burnley from: Crichton, West, Armstrong, Mellon, Davis, Thomas, Little, Cook, Cooke, Payton, Mullin, Branch, Johnrose, Jepson, Branch, Weller, Cowan, Smith, Swan, Robertson.

Oxford from: Arendse, Folland, Davis, Whelan, McGowan, Beauchamp, Murphy, Robinson, Powell, Cook, Lilley, Anthrobus, Francis, Fear, R Weatherstone, S Weatherstone.

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