BURNLEY will be faced by the Second Division's leading scorer at the Abbey Stadium tonight.

Martin Butler's hat-trick against Colchester on Friday night took his tally to 12, with nine of those goal coming in League action.

The 25-year-old striker has picked up where he left off last season when his 17 League goals helped Cambridge to promotion from Division Three.

And goal-scoring has not been a problem for the U's since their elevation.

Their 20-goal total is six more than Burnley.

But they have leaked goals alarmingly at the other end with 23 ending up in their own net to leave them fifth from bottom of the table.

Roy McFarland's men climbed out of the relegation places thanks to their first win in 11 league and cup games against Colchester.

And Butler proved again that he is the U's major weapon in a three-pronged attack alongside Trevor Benjamin and Michael Kyd.

Opta's statistics confirm the former Walsall striker's rich vein of form with his nine League goals coming from 16 shots on target and a further eight inaccurate ones. And his contribution in others areas is also fairly impressive.

He has made 308 passes with a 64 per cent completion rate, 38 dribbles and runs with a 63 per cent success rate, and also made 11 tackles of which he has won 45 per cent.

However, Butler's crossing has been poor with just a 13 per cent completion rate and he has strayed off-side 13 times.

A direct comparison with Burnley front man Andy Cooke isn't strictly fair given that Cooke has started only three games because of injury.

But the statistics are worth noting with the two-goal Clarets striker scoring a higher completion rate on both crossing (25 per cent) and dribbling (69 per cent).

Interestingly, Cooke seems to be timing his runs better this season, having yet to be caught off-side.

And while his pass completion is currently at only 54 per cent from 76 passes, he barely gave the ball away on his return to the starting line-up at Millwall. He will be looking for a repeat of that goal-scoring display, while Burnley will settle for the same level of performance but a better outcome than a 1-1 draw.

"We have to go to Cambridge for another difficult away trip and hopefully get something from there," confirmed Cooke.

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