STEVE Cotterill has vowed to try and turn Michael Ricketts into a lean, mean goal machine during his loan spell at Turf Moor.

The Leeds United striker capped a memorable home debut with the only goal against Plymouth Argyle to hand Burnley their first win since Boxing Day.

And Clarets boss Cotterill aims to get Ricketts fighting fit after the former England striker found himself consigned to a bit-part role at Elland Road.

He said: "It was an excellent finish by Michael and from the minute Micah Hyde slipped him in, I fancied him to score because we've seen him in a couple of training sessions and the lad can finish.

"He has to be looking to score a few more goals this season, but we have to look to get him a little bit fitter.

"There are two reasons for that though. One, he hasn't played a lot of football lately, but also he is a big lad, so we'll have to see if we can trim him down a bit in the coming months."

Cotterill, who signed Ricketts on loan until the summer following Ade Akinbiyi's move to Sheffield United, added: "It's all about Michael resurrecting his own career and there is room for improvement.

"He is a great lad and maybe he just lost his way for some reason, but he has come here and given his all.

"I don't think it's enough yet, but he has done as well as we could have expected."

Cotterill was delighted as the Clarets ground out their first win in eight games - keeping a second successive clean sheet in the process against an in-form Argyle side with three straight wins behind them.

He added: "It was a gritty, rugged, determined sort of performance. The only way I felt they were going to score was from long balls into the box, but I thought we defended those situations very well.

"We knew we had to play a big side against them and that there would be plenty of balls thrown into our box, but we dealt with it well.

"If you look at the stats, we probably got nine out of ten touches on the first ball from set plays and when you do that you nullify the threat of a goal being scored.

"The clean sheets are extremely pleasing. We may, all of a sudden, not be so free-scoring so we have to keep it tight and in the last two games I feel we have restricted the opposition to minimal efforts on goal.

"Brighton was a very important point for us because they are scrapping for every loose ball and every point.

"Plymouth are similar and they came here on the back of three straight wins, so we knew it was going to be a big result for us, but we also knew that win would come eventually.

"That's two clean sheets on the bounce and our 43 points means we are two points away from the top seven now, so we have to carry that into the next few difficult games."