ANDY Payton will be staying to spearhead Burnley's fight for survival and not Port Vale's bid to stay in the First Division.

Payton had been linked in the national Press with a £450,000 move to Vale Park where he would have been re-united with ex-Hull and Huddersfield manager Brian Horton.

But Horton confirmed today that he had not contacted Burnley boss Stan Ternent and Payton is not a player on his shopping list as he fights to keep Vale up.

And despite his recent barren run, Payton would be one of the last players Ternent would want to be without at the moment.

The Clarets 17-goal leading scorer is the club's only fully fit senior striker and has the goalscoring pedigree Burnley will be relying on to climb away from the relegation battle.

While Payton will be looking for his first goal in eight games against Manchester City tomorrow night, Burnley have been hit by a double ban blow ahead of the bumper clash - thanks to Wigan Athletic's notorious pitch.

The 11th-hour postponement of Saturday's game at Springfield Park means that the Clarets will be without Chris Brass and Ally Pickering for the visit of Joe Royle's in-form side.

The pair were due to serve one-match bans at Wigan. But with that game being called off just less than four hours before kick-off, they will stay on the sidelines along with Lenny Johnrose, whose own three-match ban has also been delayed.

Brass and Pickering would have offered valuable defensive options against a City side unbeaten in 11 matches and mouting a determined promotion push.

But Ternent, also without Andy Cooke, Mark Robertson and Peter Swan, remained philosophical about the situation.

"You can't do anything about it and we'll just have to get on with it," said the Burnley chief, who is likely to name the same squad he would have taken to Wigan.

Saturday's postponement also drew the Clarets nearer the bottom four as improving Notts County won at Millwall. But again Ternent kept the situation in perspective as he knows Burnley's fate remains very much in their own hands within a battle he believes they will win. "Thirty-four points won't keep us up. We have got to get our own points," he stressed. "There's still more than 25 per cent of the season left yet so it's a bit soon for all this gloom and doom."

The visit of City, which is expected to attract an 18,000 crowd to Turf Moor, would provide Burnley with the perfect platform to revitalise their season with a first win in six matches.

"There's no reason why we shouldn't do it," insisted Ternent, who took the opportunity to watch City draw 0-0 against Northampton Town at Maine Road on Saturday.

"There's going to be a good crowd and a cracking atmosphere. Northampton made it difficult and just went there to sit back but City were the better side, even with 10 men. They aren't a bad side so it should be a decent game."

City quickly sold their allocation of 4,200 tickets in the cricket field stand and will doubtless have supporters in other areas of the grounds, although the Clarets have done their best to filter the fans accordingly.

And officials are urging supporters to arrive early for a game that will attract a gate close to the 18,881 which saw Burnley stay up on the final day of last season.

Referee Phil Richards called off Burnley's game at Wigan after ruling that areas of the Springfield Park pitch were dangerous.

Groundstaff had worked until 9pm the previous evening in an effort to ensure that the game would go ahead.

And assistant secretary Stuart Hayter said that it had been playable first thing on on Saturday morning.

But snow followed by heaving morning rain then caused problems on boggy areas of the playing surface which had been sanded.

And although the whole pitch wasn't waterlogged, Preston official Richards ruled that certain trouble spots were dangerous and not fit to play on.

Wigan are now facing a potential fixture backlog and it's not yet clear when the re-arranged Burnley game will be played.

The Latics are due to meet Rochdale in the northern semi-final of the Auto Windscreens Shield tonight and if they win that they then face a two-legged final against Wrexham on March 16 and 23.

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