In-form Vokes not taking Wanderers lightly

Burnley travel to the Macron Stadium to face Bolton, who sit second bottom in the Championship with only four wins all season.

The club are £172.9m in debt, and also under a transfer embargo for breaking Financial Fair Play regulations, though they have been given hope for the future after agreeing a £7.5m takeover by the Sport Shield consortium, headed by former striker Dean Holdsworth.

But Vokes, who scored the winner last time the sides meyt at the Macron Stadium two years ago – Burnley’s first away win against Wanderers since 1985 – has warned against any complaceny as the Clarets look to build on an unbeaten run of 10 league games: “With Bolton where they are in the league, people will look at that as an easy game, but it’s going to be a tough place to go.

“We’ve gone there in the last few years and it’s been tough.

“They’ll be fighting for their lives, so it will be a tough game and we’ll be looking to extend the run we’re on at the minute.”

While Burnley top the Championship form table, Vokes is also in great nick with six goals in nine games, and he said: “It’s obviously a joy to play when we’ve got that confidence and able to play like that.

“It’s nice to be part of that team, but we can’t get carried away with it because we’ve got some tough games coming up, thick and fast, and two big games with Bolton and Blackburn.”

The Wales striker believes he has adapted his game from two years ago, when he suffered a ruptured cruciate knee ligament with Burnley on the brink of promotion to the Premier League.

He is a better all-round player as a result: “I feel that, yes. I suppose that comes with experience as well. You learn from that.

“It comes with different partnerships you play in, and different players you play with.

“A partnership with Andre (Gray) means you play a different way but I think it’s really clicking and I think we feel good playing together.

“I had a little run with Ingsy (Danny Ings) nand he’s a different kind of player to Andre.

“I think it’s just give and take with the different partnerships you play in and working out how each other plays.

I feel like myself and as a squad, together we’ve come further and we’re a lot stronger squad than we were two years ago, so I think that will stand us in good stead.”

Vokes has 10 goals for the season now, with his rich vein coming at a time when 18-goal Gray has gone four games without a goal, and he added: “Earlier in the season I had a run where I didn’t score some goals and he was banging them in.

“It’s good that we can both get on the scoresheet and work with each other well.”