ANDY Cooke confessed his relief as he emerged from the goal-scoring wilderness to clinch Burnley's dramatic 4-3 win at Bristol Rovers.

The Clarets' striker went into Saturday's game without a goal in nine outings.

But he timed his return to scoring form to perfection as Burnley finally killed off Rovers who had three times battled back to equalise in a pulsating first half.

And Cooke, now on seven for the season, revealed what the goal meant to him as Burnley collected their first win in six games to climb to 15th in the table.

"It's a bit of a weight off my shoulders. It does get a bit disheartening, especially when you're not scoring and everyone around you is," said last season's leading scorer.

"The harder you try the worse it gets and when you get a few people on your back that makes it even worse.

"It's hard to see where the next goal is coming from when you are hitting the bar, having them cleared off the line and getting goals disallowed.

"But you have just got to get on with it. The manager said if I kept playing as I was and working hard the goals would come. If you keep making chances and getting into the positions one will go in."

And Cooke's 54th-minute strike was made even sweeter by the fact that it secured only the Clarets' second away win of the season.

"After the last few weeks I think I deserved that one," added Cooke who is optimistic that he and the team are heading back in the right direction.

"The gaffer has brought in some good new signings and we are looking quite a decent side," he said. "It's still a concern the way we are conceding goals but the way we are scoring it shouldn't be a problem.

"It's been difficult with the injuries and suspensions we've had but hopefully we can build on it and and it does look promising. We are starting to get a lot of competition for places now."

Burnley boss Stan Ternent was equally delighted for Cooke, who he has backed to hit the 20-goal mark for the second season running.

Cooke won't commit himself to that publicly but expects to weigh in with his fair share to compliment Andy Payton who struck his 17th of the season at the Memorial Stadium.

"After last season I didn't want to be too optimistic and if I can reach around 15 that won't be too bad.

"Every striker goes through a bad patch, even the best ones, so hopefully that's mine out of the way," he added.

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