THEY say that patience is a virtue and in Matej Vydra’s case, he’s had to be more patient than most to get his chance.

The forgotten man of Turf Moor most definitely took his opportunity on Saturday, smashing home the winner at St Mary’s last weekend as the Clarets picked up another huge three points at Southampton.

Whilst it wasn’t much of a spectacle due to the weather, the Vydra goal was a real piece of quality and certainly showed what the Czech international has to offer after coming on midway through the first half for the injured Chris Wood.

He’s been linked with plenty of moves away but with Wood seemingly ‘touch and go’ for tomorrow’s Premier League clash at the Turf against Bournemouth, he might be called into action again.

It is strange how things turn out and when Wood limped off injured midway through the first half at St Mary’s, I’m not sure anyone could or would have predicted the fairytale for Vydra.

I’ve said here many times that I think it’s a shame he’s not been given more of a chance but a few people have always hit back that he hasn’t always shown enough in the fleeting chances he has been given.

I’ve always thought strikers, perhaps more than any other player on a team, need a run of games to get into the swing of things. Vary rarely will a striker come in cold and have an immediate impact and be able to sustain that.

The best example I can think of is Sam Vokes.

Vokesy turned into a superb player for us but he’d bounced around a couple of clubs and initially struggled to make much of a dent in anything when he was used from the bench.

As soon as he got a run in the side – and struck up a great partnership with Danny Ings – the goals started to flow.

It’s different with all players and there’s no guarantees with Vydra but I wholeheartedly believe we’d see a different player given a run.

The other thing that was clear from Saturday was how well liked he is by the rest of the squad.

They all looked so chuffed for him and I think that shows the spirit in the side, especially given the much-publicised issues surrounding Ben Gibson.

I did wonder whether Gibson was sat up in Middlesbrough wondering ‘what if’ when he saw Vydra fire home his winner.

I guess we’ll never know!