CHRIS Eagles believes Martin Paterson’s absence from the Northern Ireland squad this week will help the striker regain his goalscoring form with Burnley.

Paterson was left out of the Northern Ireland party for last night’s clash with Italy and Tuesday’s trip to the Faroe Islands after losing his place at club level in recent weeks.

The 23-year-old has yet to score this term, having mainly been utilised in a wide role in a 4-3-3, but Eagles is confident Paterson can return to the form that saw him score 19 goals in the Clarets’ promotion campaign two seasons ago.

Paterson will have been left disappointed by his Northern Ireland omission - only a year after he was in the national team’s starting line-up - but Eagles thinks his team-mate will actually benefit from the rest.

The striker went through similar problems during Burnley’s last Championship campaign, when Owen Coyle twice briefly took Paterson out of the side because of concerns that club and country commitments would result in burn-out.

“I think it’s not a bad thing that he’s not in the squad because sometimes these trips don’t do you any good,” said Eagles.

“You go away and you’re tired from travelling. You play three games in a week.

“Sometimes I don’t agree with them - especially with someone like Martin because he runs his socks off in every game.

“So when he goes away and then comes back, he sometimes feels worse than before he went.”

Circumstances meant Clarets boss Brian Laws was unable to bring Paterson off the bench in Burnley’s 1-1 draw at Millwall last weekend, with two substitutions needed in the first half because of Clarke Carlisle’s red card and an injury to Andre Bikey.

But Eagles felt Paterson showed signs of looking back to his lively self in a cameo appearance against Hull four days earlier - having been an unused substitute in the three previous league matches.

“I’m pleased he got on in the Hull game because he hadn’t got on in the couple of games before that,” said Eagles.

“Hopefully he’s going to get more chances because I’ve played with him for two years now and everyone’s seen what he can do. I just hope that he gets the confidence.

“Of course he can bounce back. Last year and the year before we had an understanding where I knew where he was going to be in the box.

“So when I see him coming on it only brings the team up and gives us more confidence.

“I just hope that gets the confidence he wants, because he’s a lovely lad and he deserves it.”