ALLY Pickering delivered a fitting tribute to his father with a stunning goal which sunk his former club and lifted Burnley to the brink of Second Division safety.

Pickering's father Albert died a few days before Saturday's game at Stoke City where the Clarets right-back had spent two-and-a-half seasons prior to his move to Turf Moor in December.

And Pickering was delighted to score for his dad, who had been a driving force in his career.

"I lost my old fella on Tuesday and I came to prove to my dad that I could come here and do a good job," he said.

"He's been everywhere with me so it was like a personal thing for me.

"My mum made me play really. She said to me 'go there and show them what they've been missing' so I came and scored a goal like that.

"I know it was a great goal but the three points was more important than anything because that will keep us up there now.

"The main thing was to come here and get three points and scoring a goal like that made it even better.

"I had no qualms with (Stoke manager) Brian Little but I just came here to do well for Burnley. I am looking out for a contract so I have just come here to do a job." Pickering had claimed only three League goals in his career before Saturday. And he will never score a better one than his stunning long-range volley after just five minutes which set the Clarets on the way to a priceless 4-1 win.

"I am particularly happy for Ally who lost his father last week and he wanted to play," said manager Stan Ternent, who will have his players focussed again this week to make certain of avoiding a late slip back towards relegation danger.

An inspired nine-match unbeaten run, with five wins and four draws, has taken Burnley to Ternent's 50-point target and up to 15th-place in the table.

But with a number of sides near the bottom also showing their fighting qualities, Ternent is seeking an insurance policy.

"It might be enough, it might not be, you don't know. It's still very tight and I would like another win," he insisted.

"I'm delighted for the players and everybody associated with the club. We are on the up-and-up. It's been a long, hard season but hopefully another win or two will see us where we want to be."

And Pickering, hoping to win a new deal in the summer to stay on at Turf Moor, stressed that it was set to be business as usual at the Clarets Gawthorpe training ground today.

Revitalised Burnley may need another couple of points to be certain of staying up. But on current form they look odds-on to get them, despite a tough run-in against Fulham, Wigan and Northampton.

And while no-one at Turf Moor will say it, the Clarets, five points above the drop zone, could yet finish in a mid-table position. Four more goals to their tally could help in the final reckoning and Andy Payton's strike, which gave Burnley an early 2-0 lead at the Britannia Stadium, represented another milestone.

The in-form striker clocked up 20 League goals in a season for the second time in his career before coming off with the recurrence of a thigh strain.

"We took a chance but after he scored he got a bit of a reaction. It paid off. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't and this time it did," said Ternent, who will have his leading scorer under treatment this week and also continue to nurse through Lenny Johnrose who is battling on with a calf problem.

Stoke pulled it back to 2-1 before half-time and for a while asked some serious questions of the Clarets defence.

But Burnley's new-found resilience carried them through again and Glen Little eased the pressure with two clinical finishes in the final quarter. "There were some very, very good individual performances and it was a very good team performance, perhaps apart from 10 or 15 minutes at the start of the second half when I felt we defended very deep," admitted Ternent.

Meanwhile Clarets defender Steve Davis has been named in the Second Division team selected by his fellow players and PFA members. The select team is: 1 Maik Taylor (Fulham), 2 Steve Finnan (Fulham), 3 Rufus Brevett (Fulham) 3 Jamie Vincent (Bournemouth) 4 Sean Gregan (Preston) 5 Steve Davis (Burnley) 6. Chris Coleman (Fulham) 7. Graham Kavanagh (Stoke) 8 Darren Wrack (Walsall) 9. Mark Stein (Bournemouth) 10. Geoff Horsfield (Fulham) 11 Steve Robinson (Bournemouth).

Kevin Henderson marked his return from injury with a goal as Burnley 'A' beat Wrexham 3-0 in the Lancashire League on Saturday. The other Clarets goals came from Matty Heywood and an Eammon Kelly penalty.

Burnley's under-18s beat Halifax 3-1 with goals from Earle Davis (two) and Andrew Waine.

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