‘There’s no reason we can’t catch Leicester’ - Ross Wallace

Clarets winger Ross Wallace feels Burnley can still reel leaders Leicester City in and challenge for the Championship title.
Ross Wallace celebrates the victory over Blackburn with Kieran TrippierRoss Wallace celebrates the victory over Blackburn with Kieran Trippier
Ross Wallace celebrates the victory over Blackburn with Kieran Trippier

Sunday’s derby win at Blackburn gave Sean Dyche’s men a seven-point cushion in the automatic promotion slots, clear of Derby County in third place, with a game in hand - tonight’s trip to Birmingham City.

But they also moved to within eight of Leicester, who still have to come to Turf Moor at the end of March.

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Wallace came off the bench at Ewood Park and had a hand in both Burnley goals as they overturned a 1-0 deficit to win, and he said: “For me personally I think ‘why don’t we catch Leicester?

“They might drop points and start to get a bit edgy and if we keep winning games who knows? “We can be looking up instead of looking behind us.

“We’ve still got to play them at home so there could be a few twists and turns in the season.

“We’re in a healthy position. We’d rather be in the position we’re in now rather than the team’s behind us.

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“But we’d rather be top of the league. We’ll just keep going and hopefully we’ll see come the end of the season, but there’s no reason why we can’t catch them.”

The former Celtic and Sunderland man, who scored a glorious free kick in last season’s 2-2 draw at St Andrew’s, is eager for a first start since returning after six months out after a knee operation.

He thrived on the atmosphere on Sunday, and admitted: “You can’t describe the feeling at the end. I’d love to bottle it up.

“It’s a great feeling when you get on the pitch and look up to the stands and see all the fans buzzing at the end.

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“It was good to get on the pitch and get that proper match buzz again. There’s no better feeling than winning, especially away at Blackburn.

“I got on against Bournemouth, which was a buzz, but this was the first big game with a big atmosphere.

“It’s not an Old Firm but it’s not far off, you can feel the intensity. They don’t like each other!

“And it was good to feel a proper part of it.”

Burnley fans partied long into the night, and the 28-year-old would love them to be able to toast promotion in May: “Hopefully there are more celebrations to come.

“It’s the old cliche, the next game’s the big one.

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“We know what we’ve got to do. We just have to do what we’ve done all season, playing well, working hard, running hard and closing teams down, working hard for each other.

“If we just continue what we’ve been doing and give good service to (Danny) Ingsy and Vokesy (Sam Vokes) to get more goals and hopefully more wins.

“We want to win every match. The next game’s at Birmingham and there are another three points up for grabs.

“We go into that focused again.”