RONNIE Jepson's return from injury can't come soon enough to bolster Burnley's fight for survival.

That's the opinion of new Turf Moor arrival Tom Cowan, who has first-hand experience of Jepson's ability from their days together at Huddersfield Town.

Cowan also knows about Andy Payton's goalscoring pedigree from his McAlpine Stadium days and believes that, with Payton and Jepson in tandem, the Clarets can pull clear of trouble.

"I played with Ronnie at Huddersfield and we won promotion through Ronnie and Andy Booth up front.

"I know Ronnie inside out and you know what you are going to get from him and he's very good at it.

"Anyone I speak to about him I praise him up to high doh because he got us promoted," said Cowan.

Jepson, an outside bet for a place in the Burnley 14 at Wrexham today but a more likely participant against Macclesfield next Sunday, scored 19 goals in 41 League games as Huddersfield went up to Division One via the play-offs in 1995.

And the veteran striker weighed in with 12 goals the following season as the Terriers consolidated their First Division place, Cowan playing in all but three of their games.

Jepson, who has played just 45 minutes since September because of a ruptured Achilles tendon, then moved on to join Burnley boss Stan Ternent at Bury, being replaced at Huddersfield by Payton who bagged 17 goals in 38 appearances. The duo therefore haven't played much together, bar a handful of games at the start of this season following Jepson's summer move from Oldham.

But, with Andy Cooke likely to be out for up to a month, a fruitful partnership between the two could be crucial to Burnley's prospects of avoiding the drop.

Cowan added: "I thought Andy Payton did a great job up front against Preston, trying to hold it up. But he's up there on his own and it's very difficult.

"I thought he did well but Andy Payton alongside Ronnie Jepson would be absolutely superb."

Cowan slotted in comfortably to the left-back position on his Clarets debut last Sunday and was set to continue in the role at Wrexham this afternoon.

And despite a losing start, the 29-year-old Scot saw enough in the 1-0 defeat by Preston to believe that Burnley can arrest their recent slump.

"You look at the team and Micky Mellon is a very good player who's played at a higher level.

"You've got a lot of good players, Glen (Little) on the wing and Branchy as well. It's unbelievable the actual squad we've got. "Then you've got the injured players, like Ronnie, who are still to come back as well," he added.

Cowan, who didn't play last season because of a knee problem, recently removed himself from the injured list at Huddersfield but joined Burnley to get in some first-team games before his future is sorted out in the summer.

"I need to play in games. It's not anything to do with my knee because that was two years ago," he said.

"I am well over that now, touch wood, but at the moment I have just come back from breaking my jaw in the FA Cup which kept me out for five weeks.

"I came back nearly three weeks ago when the manager needed me. I hadn't trained with the lads and I played a half at Tranmere and then played against Bolton in a game which we won 3-2.

"I came off with 10 minutes to go and was knackered. And that was it, basically. I played in the reserves the week after but I just need games."

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