Burnley striker Austin gunning for the Foxes

CLARETS striker Charlie Austin was happy to lift the gloom surrounding Turf Moor with his hat-trick against Peterborough.

And he hopes his second professional treble haul will help inspire the side as they look for their first away win at Leicester tomorrow night.

Burnley spent a fortnight licking their wounds in the bottom three after a third successive league defeat at home to Brighton last time out.

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But a 5-2 success against pointless Peterborough saw them climb to 15th after five games, back within a win of the play-off places.

Austin felt it was too early to be too concerned about the side’s plight before Saturday, and he said: “After the Brighton game, everyone was doom and gloom.

“It was silly to be honest. You’ve just got to look at Reading and where they were last season – they are the best example – and we came back and put a performance in.

“Peterborough hadn’t picked up any points, we needed the three points ourselves to push us up the league.

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“I think it was a knee-jerk reaction. Obviously fans want to win every game, just like the players.

“When it doesn’t go right for us they get frustrated. We need to do what we can to win games.

“Unfortunately in the last few games before Saturday, we were below par. But we then showed the quality we’ve got.

“It’s a massive win. We needed it, we needed to do it in front of the fans to show them the quality we do have, and we needed the three points to push us up that table.”

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Austin claimed the matchball against Posh, though there was some debate about his first goal, which went in with a helping hand from visiting defender Michael Bostwick.

He was in no doubt, saying: “The club decides, and the referee gave me the ball, said it was a hat-trick, and that’s what’s in his report.

“That’s two hat-tricks now – the first was away to Portsmouth as a second-half sub, and now this.

“It’s nice to get one in front of our home fans.”

Austin now has seven goals in seven games this season, on top of five in five in pre-season, and he feels like he is going to score every time he plays at present.

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He said: “I would like to say so. When the opportunity comes, I’m a confident lad and I back my ability.

“If I get the chances I back myself to score be it a header or on the floor – anything.

“If the lads create the chances, as a striker you thrive off chances, and I like to say anything that comes into the box I’d give myself half a chance to score.

“I’m really pleased with seven goals so far, and I’m improving on other parts of my game.

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“When you’re in form with goals you get more chances and I’m putting them away.”

The traditional benchmark for a striker remains 20 goals, but even after 17 in an injury-hit campaign last time, he doesn’t set any targets.

Austin said: “I never have. When I went to Swindon I just wanted to play.

“In my second season, there was a bit of pressure on me.

“I just wanted to score as many goals as I can. I never set myself targets.

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“Obviously I want to improve on my goal tally, but if you set yourself targets what happens if you don’t achieve them? You’re going to beat yourself up.

“So instead I just try to score as many goals as I can.”

“But I feel fitter, I’ve worked hard over the summer and through pre-season, and I still am. I’m still learning under the management.

“I just keep things going. I try not to look into things as you can over-analyse.

“I try to change bits of my game, but not a lot. I’m a goalscorer and if you start messing about as a goalscorer you defeat the object.

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“I’m working on my heading and hold-up play – all sorts really. I don’t think you can ever rest on your laurels as a professional, you always try to better yourself.”

And he is also keeping the team’s targets under wraps.

He said: “We have targets within ourselves. I think if we keep it in house as much as we can that’s better.

“Everyone’s been talking about doom and gloom after the Brighton game to be honest.

So if we keep it in-house we know what our realistic targets are, where we want to be and what we want to achieve.

“We want to be as high up as we can possibly get.”

• The Burnley Express has launched a FREE football app which is now available to download on iPhone and Android devices.