BURNLEY'S Icelandic midfielder Joey Gudjonsson has endured a long wait for his chance.

Two months and a change of manager later, that opportunity has arrived, and he's not about to waste it.

Gudjonsson admits he has been frustrated at the lack of first-team opportunities this season.

After starting the campaign alongside Chris McCann in the 2-1 win over West Brom, he was dropped from the squad altogether for the trip to Colchester on September 1.

He came off the bench at Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City, but found himself out of the Clarets picture once more for the rest of Steve Cotterill's tenure.

But having been told on new manager Owen Coyle's arrival that each player would start with a clean slate, Gudjonsson has looked like a new signing.

He is oozing optimism, and after scoring his first Burnley goal in the 2-1 win over Watford last night, is aiming to put himself at the forefront of new boss Coyle's plans as the Clarets prepare for a second consecutive trip to the capital.

"I've never had the run of games I would like to have had," said Gudjonsson ahead of tomorrow's game at Charlton Athletic.

"I'm not saying I should be playing the next game - that's obviously the gaffer's decision - but I'm trying to make his decision as hard as possible, and hopefully I'll just keep performing.

"You need some confidence from your manager, and he's given me that, given me permission to play and try and get the best out of me, and that has helped me a lot.

"The manager is putting his ideas forward and we are all buying into them, and it paid off (at Watford).

"Since he's come in, we've played some good stuff, and it seems to be working out quite well.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but I think we're going in the right direction."

Suffering on the sidelines is something that Gudjonsson has previously been accustomed to.

His arrival at Turf Moor in January, on a three-and-a-half-year deal, ended a brief spell with Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, during which he was restricted to just five first team appearances.

But the 27-year-old is ready to put all of those frustrations behind him.

"I didn't get a lot of opportunities in Holland either, I think I played one game in six months as well," he said.

"Managers can make or break players, but I'm really happy with how things have turned out.

"Obviously I came on in the last game (against Stoke) for 10 minutes, and it was good to get back in after six or seven games without being involved or even in the squad.

"The new gaffer has given me a chance, and I'm just trying to take it and show what I'm capable of.

"It's horrible not being involved but there are a lot of other good things in life that you just keep enjoying.

"Coming into training has always been good, but it was really disappointing come Saturday and you're not involved and have to keep watching from the sidelines, game after game after game.

"It's quite tough, but the only thing you can do is just keep going.

"I think every player feels he wouldn't be involved (in football) unless he feels he should be playing every game, and I'm exactly the same.

"I feel I should be playing every game, and that makes it more frustrating, but the only thing you can do is keep going."

He added: "There's a long way to go and I still want to keep playing and performing, and, most importantly, we want to be in a play-off position at the end of the season.

"We knew it was going to be difficult (at Watford), because they kept launching the ball forward, but we handled it quite well.

"Everybody says that Watford are a really difficult team to play against, but I think if you asked them, they would say we were really difficult to play against, because we passed the ball quite well, and I think we dominated the game.

"We went with a game plan, we wanted to play, regardless of what they were doing, and it worked out fine.

"We don't want to concentrate too much on the opposition, just concentrate on ourselves.

"We'll take it a game at a time and we'll be going into tomorrow with a lot of positive thoughts, keep playing in the same way and hopefully we will get a good result."