BURNLEY, it seems, are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.

Going into their eighth away game having drawn one and lost six of the previous seven there have been calls for the Clarets to be less adventurous on the road.

The theory being that if they ‘park the bus’, as the expression goes, they might have a better chance of snatching the win that has eluded them away from Turf Moor.

But Robbie Blake - an architect of some of Burnley's best forward play - and manager Owen Coyle do not necessarily agree.

“Would you be getting criticised if you were trying to hang on for a 0-0 or a 1-1 and get a sucker punch in the last five minutes?” queried Blake.

“Everyone would be saying ‘Burnley don’t go out and attack teams; they only want to play defensive football’.”

The only way, he feels, is Owen Coyle’s way.

“We like to play, we like to play open, attacking football. We’re not sitting with two men at the back and everybody else up front,” said the Burnley manager.

“We’ve been the architects of our own downfall in terms of making poor decisions in the wrong areas, but it won’t change our belief in terms of trying to win games.

“The players we have at this club have been brought here because they are football players and that’s what we’ll continue to do; we’ll continue to go, home or away, and look to win matches. It suits the players I have, it certainly suits the style we want to play.

“We’ll win games, whether it be home or away, and it will be sooner rather than later.”

Blake is certainly confident of that. But having only taken the lead twice away, including when they earned their first point at Manchester City, he feels the first goal is vital.

“It’s a must,” he said.

“We got the early one against Blackburn and didn’t hang on to that, but that was a derby game. I think once we get the first goal teams will go on the back foot knowing that we’re due our first league away win and I think that will play on their minds.

“If we do get the first goal and manage to keep it tight for another 15-20 minutes I think we can go on and win games.”

It is no coincidence, the 33-year-old feels, that the Clarets have drawn first blood in every game at Turf Moor, where they boast an enviable record.

“It’s the same personnel and same formation (home and away). We can’t put our finger on it but we’ve just got to keep plugging away, keep doing what we do best which is going forward and attacking teams and hopefully we’ll get our first win. If we do that I think we can move on from there.

“I think once we get our first win other ones will follow.”

Although Burnley have conceded more than three goals, on average, per away game, Blake admits their predicament is a far cry from the first season of his first spell at the club, under Stan Ternent, when results included a 6-5 defeat to Grimsby and home defeats to Rotherham, Watford and Sheffield Wednesday that read 2-6, 4-7 and 2-7 respectively.

“There’s one time I can remember when Gareth Taylor got a hat-trick and we were still getting beat at half-time. And we were at home!” he recalled.

“You can say how bad our away form is but we’re sat nearly mid-table in the league.

"There are big games coming ... massive games, and I’m pretty sure if we play the way we have in certain games away from home where we’ve been beaten, I think we can win games comfortably away from home.

"Obviously it’s a massive game on Saturday against Portsmouth, who vitally need the points, but we need the points as well.

“It’s going to be an entertaining game because I think they play good football as well.

"So it should be a belter. It should be another 6-5! Hopefully for us.”

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