ROBBIE Blake has backed record signing Steven Fletcher to hit the coveted 20-goal mark in his debut Premier League season.

Burnley's £3million record signing has begun to blaze a trail as he goes into this afternoon’s game at bottom club Portsmouth with four goals in the last five games.

Although Fletcher scored three in two Carling Cup matches, he had to wait until October for his first in English football’s top flight - the first arriving in a 2-1 home win over Birmingham City.

But now he’s up and running, Blake is confident there’ll be no stopping the 22-year-old Scot as the Clarets own debut Premier League season progresses.

“Fletch has been phenomenal for the last five or six games; he’s been tremendous,” Blake enthused.

“He just needs to keep doing that and scoring the goals and he's going to be vital for us.

“He's really, really impressed me. He's still young as well.

“You've got to remember it's only his first season in this league and a lot of the time he's playing up front on his own, so he's done tremendously well for us and has been a big asset for us this season.

“I don't want to set him any targets but he can certainly make the big 'two oh' as well, as they say, and move on from there.

“We're just pleased that he's with us at the moment and he's banging the goals in for us.”

Although Blake has often been central to Burnley's best forward moves, his only goals so far have been the winner against Manchester United and opening goal in 3-2 defeat to Blackburn Rovers.

The 33-year-old admits the rocket the rocked the Red Devils will live long in the memory, but insisted goals aren't essential to his game.

“It's not playing on my mind. I don't think I've ever been an out and out goalscorer. I get just as much enjoyment setting goals up as I do scoring," he said.

“But if I get a chance I'm fairly confident I'll take it.

“Hopefully one will fall nicely to me (today), if selected, and then I'm up and running again.”

But having faced criticism for their poor away form, Blake is even more determined to make sure Burnley answer-up and prove people wrong in this afternoon's televised game (kick-off 12.30pm).

“We've got to make sure people stop talking about it,” he said.

“It's just frustrating because we've played really well in spells and scored plenty of goals but we've leaked a few silly ones.

"If we can cut them out as a team we've certainly got players going forward to cause problems and score goals in this division.

“We need to just stick to our guns, be positive and see what comes.

"If you start changing systems and formations and how you want to play it can affect the team as well.

“At least we're giving people value for money. They won't be going away thinking Burnley aren't attacking teams and not playing well.

“As a group of players we believe in ourselves and we're going to keep doing that, even though we've had knockbacks in the Press and all that.

"We're a solid group of players, with the manager and staff as well.

"We believe we're doing the right things in going forward and hopefully that will be proved over the course of the season by staying up.”