Burnley boss Stan Ternent has taken the 23-year-old on a trial spell and will assess his form over the next few days before deciding whether to take the matter further.

"He'll have a game tonight and he's with us for a week for us to have a look at him," confirmed Ternent after seeing his side climb to fifth place in the Second Division thanks to a 1-0 win at Cambridge United last night.

Allen watched the game from the stands and saw Burnley bag the points through Andy Cooke's fifth-minute goal - his second in two games after returning to the starting line-up following hamstring trouble.

"He's working his socks off," said Ternent.

"He's got back in the side and he scored another important goal again for us last night. He's playing particularly well at the moment and he did before his injury at the start of the season so I'm delighted."

And the win, Burnley's second away success of the season, was achieved without leading scorer Andy Payton, who was ruled out through illness.

Ternent confirmed: "Andy's got sickness and diarrohea. He was ill on Monday and I was hopeful he was going to be alright but we had him looked at again yesterday by the doctor and he sent him to bed with some tablets. So Andy was a non-starter."

With the Clarets' promotion rivals also all winning last night, the result at the Abbey Stadium was crucial for Burnley, who had drawn three and lost one of their previous four games.

"I've been quite happy with the way the lads have been playing. I just felt we needed a little rub of the green," Ternent added.

"If you work hard enough and believe, you will get a break sooner or later. So I don't have any complaints whatsoever. I feel that we are doing quite well.

"From being a bottom six side to a top six side is quite a turn-around in a short period of time. The lads are up for it so I'm happy and that was a really important win for us last night."

And Ternent was happy with the points return from two away games in the space of four days.

"Millwall's a difficult place to go and Cambridge are amongst the top-scorers in the division so I think four points from six away from home is excellent.

"They put us under quite a lot of pressure with balls into our danger area but we coped admirably with it so overall I thought we thoroughly deserved our victory," he said.

Cambridge slipped back into the bottom four on the strength of only their second home defeat.

And their misery was compounded by a suspected double leg fracture for skipper Andy Duncan, who was hurt in an accidental collision with one of his team-mates.

Burnley's reserves entertain Rotherham reserves in the Pontins League Group Cup tonight (kick-off 7.15) when as well as Allen, Paul Weller, Mark Robertson, Alan Lee, Ronnie Jepson, Chris Brass and possibly Micky Mellon are likely to figure.

QUOTE: "The lads are up for it so I'm happy and that was a really important win for us tonight." STAN

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