Amougou hoping to stay in Burnley side

ANDRE Amougou’s overhead kick sealed a place in the last 16 of the Carling Cup.

And he hopes the goal goes some way to retaining his place in the side.

The Cameroon international’s last start was the 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in August, and he was on the bench for the following five games.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But a neck injury sustained by Ben Mee at Peterborough saw him restored to the starting line-up against MK Dons, and he said: “I’m happy because I was out of the team for three or four games.

“I’m happy to come back and score, you can’t ask for more than that.

“The manager knows what I can bring to the team.

“I don’t know why he left me out. I think it was a tactical decision.

“But if I stay injury free I hope I’m going to be there for a long time.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And he was modest about his spectacular effort, that settled the tie with three minutes remaining: “In that moment everyone’s just looking for the goal.

“You have to score. You need to get a goal and get the win.

“It was fantastic because we came back from 1-0 down.

“We didn’t play well in the first half so we came back with a different mentality.

“We played a lot better in the second half so we’re happy and will look to take that into the Southampton game.”

Eddie Howe was hugely disappointed with the first half display, and Amougou said: “The manager wasn’t happy at half-time, because everyone at this football club is convinced we have a really good squad and quality players, so it was normal for the manager to be disappointed by the first half.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It was important to win because it was a big test for us. Southampton is another and I hope we can perform well.

“The cup is important to us but right now the most important thing is to be in a better position in the league.

“Southampton are on great form now and beating everyone.

“There is a lot of pressure when you play at home

“The confidence came back.

“If you compare the two halves, the first half and the second half were completely different.

“The manager changed the tactics in the second half, we played better and we got the result.”