Sean Dyche is in it to win it as Burnley take on AFC Bournemouth for the chance to reach FA Cup quarter-finals!

Sean Dyche recalls an exchange with ex-England striker Gary Lineker ahead of one of the biggest moments of his career.

Third tier Chesterfield, captained by Dyche, were gearing up to take on the might of Premier League Middlesbrough in the FA Cup semi-final.

Bryan Robson named a strong side for the tie at his old stomping ground, with Gianluca Festa, Emerson, Juninho and Fabrizio Ravanelli all featuring at Old Trafford.

But they needed a replay at Hillsborough, after looking dead and buried with half-an-hour left in Greater Manchester, to book their place in the 1996/97 final against eventual champions Chelsea at Wembley.

Lineker, who was the host of Football Focus at the time, would be forced to eat his words, as John Duncan's underdogs captured the hearts of the nation with a quite memorable display.

Dyche, who had given the Spireites a 2-0 lead from the spot on the hour in the six-goal thriller, understood Lineker's train of thought, however. “If you get knocked out, it means nothing," he said.

“No-one really bothers with FA Cup quarter-finals, not even semi-finals. Gary Lineker once said to me ‘Sean, nobody remembers beaten semi-finalists’.

"But then we had our semi-final with Chesterfield and it went to extra-time and he said ‘actually they will remember that one'. But his point is right. If you want to go all the way, you want to win it."

Make no bones about it, the Burnley boss is in it to win it! He hasn't come this far to miss out on a quarter-final place for the second time in five seasons.

The Premier League has, and always will, be Dyche's key focus. But he wants this journey in the competition to have some value.

That would mean going all the way. “It’s irrelevant going near," he said. "That’s just my mindset. If you’re on a journey to try and win the FA Cup, then you’ve got to win it.

“You can argue a semi-final means something, but you are not remembered for getting to a quarter-final.

“That would be my mindset to try and get there and if something happens along the way, that’s football.”

Burnley surrendered an opportunity to make the final eight in 2016/17 when Lincoln, operating in the National League back then, sprung an upset at Turf Moor.

Defender Sean Raggett scored the only goal of the game with the away side's only effort on target in the 89th minute to secure a tie with Arsenal at the Emirates.

However, it's all water under the bridge for Dyche. He said: “Lincoln on the day did everything you would want to try and do, one shot on target, scored a goal.

"Referee’s decisions went for them, the pitch was awful, all the things you would want if you were Lincoln.

“I know it makes a story and people used words like 'embarrassment' and I said absolutely not.

"That belittles the opposition when you start talking about embarrassment so no embarrassment at all. They deserved to win on the day, end of story.

“I have no baggage from that, none at all. That’s football and I have been on the other side of that with small clubs who have beaten big clubs."

Dyche added: “There is no ill feeling over that one. We could have, should have and all the rest of it.

“I will remind you that, which people forget, the next round was away at Arsenal.

"For us that would have been sandwiched in-between Man United and Chelsea towards the end of a Premier League season when we needed to stay up. Who knows, that might have affected it.

“In the end we managed to stay up comfortably with two games to go and stay in the Premier League. Would I have taken that over beating Lincoln? One hundred per cent.”

Dyche was involved the last time the Clarets reached the quarter-final stage, some 18 years ago during Stan Ternent's reign.

He was an unused substitute for Watford at Vicarage Road when the visitors - who had Steve Davis, Paul Weller, Glen Little and Robbie Blake on the bench - netted twice late on.

Tommy Smith (74) and Stephen Glass (80) dented Burnley's hopes on a sunny afternoon in Hertfordshire.

Dyche recalled: "Glassy bent a brilliant free kick into the corner. Burnley were going well actually.

"I came out of the side at Christmas after breaking a bone in my foot and Marcus Gayle came in at centre-half and did brilliant.

"We ended up making the semis where we got beat by Southampton. I don't really remember the first goal, but I remember Glass whipped a free kick over the wall and into the corner.

"I remember the away end being packed with Burnley fans and I remember it being a lovely sunny day.

"I remember the occasion, I remember the moments and I remember, equally, that I was on the bench. It didn't happen many times!"

He added: "It was different because we were a Championship side. The bigger one was at Chesterfield, of course.

"That was a bigger one because we were such a small club, fighting against the superpowers and we made an FA Cup semi-final.

"That was bigger news than Watford doing it, even though the Watford run was still big news. We made the League Cup semi-final as well, but didn't progress in either in the end.

"We'd all taken deferrals in our wages at that time and that helped pay that back so it was a win-win.

"It was a win for the club with the kudos - can you get to the final - but equally the club made enough money out of it to pay all the players and staff members who had taken deferrals.

"It was a strange kind of success. It was a win-win all round."