Northern Ireland U20 striker Kyle Lafferty has been urged to take his game to the next level after returning from a loan spell at Darlington.

Lafferty, 18, was recalled earlier this week as the Clarets are again down to just 16 senior professionals for the trip to face Coventry City at the Ricoh Arena.

During six weeks in the north east he scored three goals in nine starts, including a late winner against Peterborough to earn the Quakers three precious points in their chase to win promotion from League Two.

That represented a first taste of regular league football for Lafferty, whose previous experience was a handful of appearances as a Burnley substitute at the start of the 2005/06 season.

And Clarets boss Cotterill, who handed the 6ft 4in striker his first professional contract last December - a deal that runs until the summer of 2008 - expects to see his striker return and take his game to new heights at Turf Moor.

He said: "Kyle has done very well at Darlington and it's been a good little introduction for him.

"We needed to have Kyle back because of our numbers and we'll see how he does back here now, hopefully playing with that first team mentality."