Goalscorer Kightly praises Clarets’ fighting spirit

The on-loan Stoke City winger, who made his debut in the East Lancashire derby against Blackburn Rovers at Turf Moor in September, scored in the 49th minute to push the Clarets closer to the Premier League.

“It’s a great win.,” he said. “There’s pressure on both sides so it was more of a scrap than a nice game of football. But we dug in, it’s a great clean sheet and nice to get a goal.

“It’s a tough place to come, even though they’re not doing as well as they’d like to be doing. It’s a great win for us.”

The victory opened up an 11 point gap over promotion rivals Derby County, ahead of the Rams’ Championship fixture against Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium. And the 28-year-old was delighted to supply the strike that extended their cushion in the table.

“It’s a step closer but there’s still big points to play for with three games coming up,” he said. “We’ll recover now and focus on Monday and hopefully we can get a result there.

“There’s a great belief within the dressing room. We had a few chances in the first half - myself included - but we knew we had more in us. It was nice to get the goal in the end.

“I played one in to Deano, it’s a great touch back to me and it opened up ahead of me. I can’t really remember it to be honest. It was a nice feeling watching it go in, but more importantly it’s three points.”

With 12 different scorers in the league this term, Kightly added: “It shows how good a team we’ve got and the strength of the squad. Everyone’s been chipping in with the goals this season even though it’s mainly the front two that’s grabbed the headlines. It’s a squad game and collectively we’ve been a different class this year. We just want to carry that on.”

Follow @BXSport on Twitter!