THE King is dead. Long live the King!

It was one year ago this very week that cult hero Ade Akinbiyi, who recently vacated his throne, scored his first goal in Burnley colours.

Former Sunderland striker Andy Gray is now the man being asked to inherit the crown.

And the new man's reign could hardly have started better than a goal on his home debut to end the Clarets' agonising 513 minute goal drought and banish all lingering worries about being sucked into the relegation dogfight.

All rise for Andrew the 'First'.

It was Akinbiyi's successor who scored the first goal of the Championship season back in August, before immediately sealing a £1.1m move from Sheffield United to Sunderland.

Gray then became the answer to a quirky quiz question when he scored his first goal for the Black Cats on the opening day of the Premiership season one week later.

And the six-foot striker continued a season of firsts with the classy 18th minute strike that lifted every ounce of the baggage that has seemingly weighed Burnley down since their only other league victory this year, against Plymouth Argyle back on February 4.

From that point on, following a distinctly and, in the circumstances, entirely understandable shaky opening quarter, Steve Cotterill's side never looked back to end a dismal sequence of six straight defeats in style against an in-form City side arriving at Turf Moor still harbouring faint hopes of making a play-off charge.

Graham Branch gave Burnley vital breathing space with a second goal six minutes after the break and it was effectively job done.

One victory does not cure all ills and it will doubtless take further assured performances to persuade the fence-sitters to add to the supporter base and give Steve Cotterill stronger foundations from which to build.

But Burnley's third successive victory in front of the Sky cameras this season should go a long way towards persuading fans to follow the new season ticket mantra of 'You'll Always Be A Claret'.

However, the majority of the 11,938 inside Turf Moor suffered more frayed nerves before they finally got the green light to celebrate long and hard into the night.

If the majority of the game belonged to the Clarets, the opening 15 minutes were certainly dominated by the visitors who, with a little luck and more composure in front of goal, might easily have put the game beyond the hosts' reach.

Norwich wasted FOUR gilt-edged chances to grab the game by the scruff of the neck, starting with an amazing bit of ping-pong in the Burnley box.

Centre back Michael Duff was caught in possession in the third minute and Leon McKenzie picked out Jonatan Johansson with a precise cross to the far post.

The unmarked Finn controlled the ball in a flash, but with just Brian Jensen to beat horribly sliced his shot straight back across the six-yard box to McKenzie - wrong-footing everybody in the process.

That left Jensen stranded, but left back Jon Harley was in the perfect place to head the goalbound drive off the line.

Soon after dangerman Darren Huckerby opened his legs for the first time, only to fire weakly at Jensen as the angle widened.

However, the alarm bells were now ringing loudly and Burnley had two more emergencies to deal with before the quarter hour mark.

A short corner caught the Clarets napping and when Simon Charlton dinked a cross into the box, Gray was a relieved man when the ball sailed off his shoulder to rap the underside of the crossbar.

But everything paled into insignificance compared to the gift-wrapped present the hapless McKenzie failed to unwrap in the 15th minute.

Frank Sinclair's weak back header gave the former Peterborough striker a clear run on goal, but his attempted chip over the stranded Jensen was horribly executed and ball dollied into the grateful Dane's grasp.

After somehow drawing a blank, Norwich must surely have feared the worst and Turf Moor duly erupted minutes later when the Clarets grabbed the lead in stunning fashion.

Frank Sinclair and Harley combined to send Branch scampering down the left and the winger managed to drill the ball into the penalty area behind defender Jason Shackell.

Gray still had it all to do, but his instant control and clever back-flick bamboozled Adam Drury and the finish gave England's third-choice keeper Robert Green no chance.

An adrenaline rush immediately reverberated around the ground and, picking up on the vibe, Burnley set about grabbing an immediate second.

Chris McCann delivered a killer ball in to the six-yard box that was cleared in blind panic with Ricketts lurking. And when the on-loan striker rolled a one-two back into Phil Bardsley's path, the on-loan Manchester United defender had the confidence to let fly with an ambitious 25-yarder that flew just wide.

Suddenly, all Norwich's early gusto was blown away and four minutes before the break only a debatable offside decision denied Burnley the breathing space of a second goal.

Harley fed McCann and then raced onto the teenager's magnificent pass to chip the ball superbly over the onrushing Green, only for the flag to bring the celebrations to a grinding halt.

Thankfully, the opposing linesman was more alert in stoppage time when McKenzie almost found himself miles offside before beating Jensen at the second attempt.

But with that chance went City's last genuine hope of salvaging anything from their trip north.

Branch doubled Burnley's lead six minutes after the break, advancing onto Bardsley's inviting cross to the far post to head home his second league goal of the season.

Three months had passed since Burnley last held a two-goal lead - and Norwich were now in no shape to deny the Clarets a long overdue victory.

McKenzie somehow headed Huckerby's corner down and over the crossbar and sub Ian Henderson failed to hit the target after sneaking in at the far post.

Burnley responded by handing Mahon his debut for Ricketts and reverting to a 4-5-1 system with Gray as the lone man And that blanket thrown across the midfield comfortably snuffed out the threat for the remainder of the game.

In fact, Burnley could have added to their total as Gray fired at Green and Mahon's vicious volley was well saved by the City stopper.

But after so long with out a win, who's counting?

Anyone for a season ticket?