Jay can go all the way

A year ago, Jay Rodriguez made a huge impact as a substitute at Selhurst Park, forcing his way into the starting line-up, and he has started 44 of the following 46 games for the club, scoring 18 goals in the process – including four in the 6-3 Carling Cup win over Burton Albion on Tuesday night.

Assistant boss Jason Tindall knows it will be hard to hold on to the 22-year-old if he continues to progress at such a rate – although the club are desperate to keep the Burnley-born youngster.

Tindall said yesterday morning: “He’s a fantastic talent. He’s a great all-rounder. You wouldn’t label him as having only one or two attributes, he has quite a few great attributes that all strikers want.

“He’s only a young lad, he’s willing and keen to improve, and he’s been in fine form for us, and hopefully that can continue.

“Jay will certainly score goals, there’s no question about that. He’s proved he will score at Championship level, and he’ll carry on doing that.

“You’ve got to have good attributes and be instinctive in front of goal.

“Jay has put the work in on the training ground, and it’s starting to show now in all his performances.”

Right-back Kieran Trippier has played with Rodriguez at Barnsley, with England Under-21s, and now Burnley, and backed him to hit the 20-goal mark this season. He said: “He’s a good finisher. I can see him doing really well this season and scoring plenty of goals.

“I was there for his last two games on loan at Barnsley. Since then, he’s matured and got bigger and faster.

“He’s come on so much.

“If he keeps scoring goals, Premier League clubs and other top Championship clubs might come in.

“But he’s a Burnley lad and the fans love him, and the number nine shirt means a lot to him.

“I think he’ll get 20-plus goals this season and be up there with the top goalscorers this season.”

Many fans have looked at the £8m fee Ipswich received for Connor Wickham, and wondered how much Rodriguez is worth, and Trippier has played with both. He said: “They’re both goalscorers, but they’re different players.

“They’re both very good, but I think Jay will score more goals. He has every attribute you need for a striker. He just has to keep doing what he’s doing and keep scoring.”

Burnley were awaiting yesterday’s outcome of the Premier League and Football League meeting as to whether the game at Palace will go ahead after a week of rioting across the country.

Croydon was one of the worst affected areas, on Monday night, and Tottenham - where the unrest all started over the weekend, yesterday morning postponed their opening Premier League clash with Everton.

The Clarets were due to stay overnight in Croydon, and Tindall said: “We want the game to go ahead. We don’t want to all of a sudden have a backlog of fixtures two weeks into the season.

“The riots up and down the country is obviously going to play a part in the decision.

“We want the game to be on, and if it is we’ll be well prepared and looking forward to it.

“We are staying in Croydon. I’m not aware of a change in plan for that. That’s something that we’ll talk about depending on the feedback we get from the police in that part of the country.”

Whether the game goes ahead or not, striker Martin Paterson will not be involved with injury, and boss Eddie Howe is determined to leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of his troublesome thigh problem - including alternative methods from the continent.

He said: “We just want to get him fit and we’ll do whatever it takes. If that means sending him abroad for treatment, whatever it may be, whether we look abroad for alternatives methods of treatment now.

“We’re talking to several people to see the best course of action.

“There are things out there, there are people abroad – in Germany – who come highly recommended and are specialists in this type of injury.

“It’s quite rare that you get the same injury recurring like this, so we maybe need to attack it from a different angle.”

The Clarets have been linked with moves for Barnsley’s Danny Haynes and Bournemouth’s Danny Ings as they look to bolster their striking options, and Tindall said: “We need to add to the squad and bring players in who are going to be good assets for the football club and come in and have an impact.

“We are trying to bring one or two in but sometimes it’s affected by other people and unfortunately it’s not really in our hands.

“There are obviously a number of avenues you have to go down before you can bring these people in.

“We are trying and hopefully it will be before the weekend, but if it’s not it will have to be when the time is right for us to do that.”

Croydon was one of the worst affected areas, on Monday night, and Tottenham – where the unrest all started over the weekend, yesterday morning postponed their opening Premier League clash with Everton.

The Clarets were due to stay overnight in Croydon, and Tindall said: “We want the game to go ahead. We don’t want to have a backlog of fixtures two weeks into the season.

“The riots up and down the country is obviously going to play a part in the decision.

“We want the game to be on, and if it is we’ll be well prepared.

“We are staying in Croydon. I’m not aware of a change in plan for that. That’s something we’ll talk about depending on feedback we get from the police.”

Whether the game goes ahead or not, striker Martin Paterson will not be involved with injury, and boss Eddie Howe is determined to leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of his troublesome thigh problem – including alternative methods from the continent.

He said: “We just want to get him fit and we’ll do whatever it takes. Whatever it may be, whether we look abroad for alternatives methods of treatment now.