CHRIS Iwelumo has revealed his surprise that Burnley were prepared to let him go in January, but is determined to fight for his place after scoring in his first start under Eddie Howe.

The 6ft 4ins striker hopes he has done enough to merit keeping his place in the side at Cardiff City tonight after being overlooked by the new Clarets boss in his first five games.Iwelumo’s omission is understood to have made him a target for a number of Championship rivals, including Preston, Barnsley and Crystal Palace.

Talks broke down in the end, but joint top scorer Iwelumo, who signed a two-year contract from Wolves in the summer, admitted he didn’t expect it to get to that stage in the first place.

“I got a phonecall saying a couple of clubs had come in and I thought the door would have been closed on it, but there were talks going on, which I was surprised about.

"But that's football, you just don't know what's round the corner in the game,” said the 32-year-old, who was recalled to the side at Watford on Saturday, after January signing Charlie Austin was struck down with a virus.

And Iwelumo played a key role in a 3-1 win at Vicarage Road, setting up Chris Eagles before matching the winger’s 11-goal tally to wrap up a 3-1 win with his first away goal of the season.

“It's just good to be starting again,” continued the Scotland international, who made 20 league starts under previous boss Brian Laws.

“It's so frustrating when you're not involved so I think when that chance comes along you've got to do everything in your power to make sure you don't get left out again.

“I'm not the only one.

“Everyone in the squad wants to play - I think that's the way it should be - and when they're not, when you lose your way there's no coming back from it, so you've got to try to do whatever you can to keep focused, so when that chance does come you're in the right place to perform.

“I'm sure that's what every manager wants. He wants every player in the squad to be chomping at the bit to play, and that's exactly how it is here.

“It was frustrating (to be left out), but that's football.

"You just never know what's round the corner for you. You've just got to keep your head right and try to stay as professional as you can do.”

Assistant manager Jason Tindall praised Iwelumo’s professionalism, and said they were pleased not to lose him in the window, particularly in light of injury to Martin Paterson and Austin’s illness.

“We are quite short on the striker front so it is important that we kept all our strikers at the football club, and it's important now that we try to keep all the strikers that we have available to us at the minute fit. If we can do that we've got some very good options available,” he said.

“When you're a good player, like Chris is, then you're obviously going to have interest.

“I'm sure there was quite a lot of interest in the big man.

"We were pleased that he didn't go anywhere and decided to stay with us, and he's going to play a big part in the future of the football club.

“Big Chris has been excellent since day of us arriving.

"He's shown a fantastic attitude and came into the side again on Saturday and was excellent for us.

"He played a big part in the second goal, and he was in the right place at the right time for the third goal.

“We're pleased for Chris because he's been very patient and trained very hard and he got the rewards for that.”

He added: “It's a squad game and you have to prepare in the right way whether you're in the side or you're not in the side because at any moment you will get that opportunity and it'd important that when you do you come into the side and you perform very well.

“That's exactly what Chris has done.“ Meanwhile, Austin could come back into contention after missing most of last week’s training sessions through illness.

“Charlie had a virus all last week, which was unfortunate, especially being a new lad coming into the environment.

"You want to try to stay fit and be available but unfortunately he picked up a virus and he was in a pretty bad way last week, so we'll just assess him,” said Tindall.