CARLISLE UNITED 1

BURNLEY 2

Clarets FRIENDLY: Pete Oliver reports from Brunton Park

ANDY Cooke underlined his value to the Burnley cause as the Clarets wound up their public preparations for the new campaign with their third win in four pre-season outings.

There was little of the red-hot atmosphere generated at Brunton Park at the end of last season when goalkeeper Jimmy Glass's famous injury-time goal kept the Cumbrians in the Football League.

But with the temperature hitting 30 degrees Celsius there was enough heat out on the pitch to make it hard work for the players.

That's a commodity Cooke has never been afraid of and with Clarets boss Stan Ternent opting to check out a system utilising a lone central striker with support from a five-man midfield he had plenty of ground to cover in his opening 34-minute burst.

Cooke was up to the task, however, and capped his performance with an excellent headed goal which should boost his confidence going into next Saturday's Second Division opener.

There has been plenty of speculation concerning Cooke's future over the summer with Crewe reportedly keen on the player.

But with the new season just a few days away he's obviously not going anywhere, which is good news for the Clarets.

By his own admission he didn't have the best of seasons last time out. But Cooke has still scored 30 goals in two years which represents an impressive strike-rate.

And you can bet your life most defenders would be happier coming to Turf Moor knowing that they didn't face a 90-minute scrap with the bruising front man, who carried too much aerial threat for the Carlisle defence.

Luke Weaver had just made one superb reflex save when he was left clutching at air by Cooke's glanced diving header from Paul Smith's cross which put Burnley 1-0 up.

Cooke's work done, he made way for Andy Payton before Alan Lee was given his chance.

And to hammer home the point that the two senior front men will have some genuine competition for their places, summer signing Lee drove home his second goal of the warm-up programme 13 minutes after Carlisle's equaliser to clinch Burnley's victory.

There could have been further goals after half-time for Payton, Graham Branch and Stephen Grant, while John Mullin was denied by the finger-tips of Weaver and Johnrose had an effort cleared off the line at the end of one of the Clarets best moves of the match.

On the debit side, Burnley conceded a disappointing goal when they weren't clinical enough in clearing the danger created by Andy Walker and Peter Clark and allowed Richard Tracey to sweep home his equaliser.

There were also a couple of other occasions when the Clarets were too generous at the back and they could have been punished just before the break by ex-Leicester, Blackburn and Sunderland midfielder Steve Agnew.

But on the whole Burnley did enough to show that they are ready for a more meaningful test.

Who will be charged with the job of carrying it through still remains to be seen, however.

Glen Little is starting to wind it up and will be a key man and Paul Cook has continued where he left off last season in pulling the strings from midfield.

But Ternent has to solve the poser of who and how many to play alongside them, while at the back, Paul Smith was given another lengthy run-out in the left-back slot.

Other places will now have names like Cooke, Payton, Dean West, Mitchell Thomas, Steve Davis and Gordon Armstrong inked in.

But Ternent, who won't start at Wycombe with the 11 that kicked off on Saturday, revealed again that he has plenty of options in reserve as he used all 20 of his players.

Ronnie Jepson took his chance as well as any and with 16 players on duty in each game the experienced campaigner could still have a role to play.

And with no further clues to come out before next weekend, it promises to be an interesting trip to Wycombe. How they lined up:

CARLISLE: Weaver, Pitts (Barr 83), Clark, Whitehead, Brightwell, Prokas, Hopper (Skelton 78), Agnew, Walker, Harries (Tracey 34), Searle (Thorpe 83).

BURNLEY: Crichton, West, P Smith, Mellon, Davis, Thomas, Little, Cook, Cooke, Mullin, Branch. Subs all used: Armstrong, Payton, Cowan, Robertson, Johnrose, Jepson, Lee, Grant, M Smith.

REFEREE: Graham Laws (Whitley Bay).

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