Trippier relishing Jay Rod challenge

Following a competitive tussle with Martin Paterson in Wednesday’s 3-2 victory over Huddersfield Town at Turf Moor, the 23-year-old faces a potential battle with Jay Rodriguez as the Clarets head to St Mary’s to take on Southampton in the FA Cup third round tomorrow.

Since joining the Saints - who also harbour former Clarets Danny Fox and Jack Cork - Rodriguez has scored 18 times in all competitions which earned the striker his first England cap as he played 57 minutes in the 2-0 defeat to Chile at Wembley in an international friendly.

“I wasn’t really here with Cork and Fox,” said Trippier. “I played a couple of games with Fox but Jay Rod is a top guy and I’m looking forward to meeting up with him.

I hope he plays left wing because I’ll be getting stuck in to him. It’ll be good to play against him and I’ll be able to learn a lot from him because he’s played so many games in the Premier League.

“He’s a different player to what he was when he was here and it’s good to play against the best. Jay Rod is a quality player. He’s on fire at the moment and it’s good that Roy Hodgson’s given him the chance. He scored two the other day (against Cardiff) and it wouldn’t surprise me if he went on to bigger things.”

Trippier added: “When it drew Burnley against Southampton I was buzzing; may be not about the journey though. It’s a good test for us against a Premier League team that’s in form. They might rest a few players but they’ve got the squad to do that. I think all of us are hoping Jay Rod plays.

“A cup run would mean a lot and we want to go as far as we can in it. It’s a massive test but we’re going to go there and try to win. There’s no reason why we can’t. It’ll be an interesting game.”

Trippier struck in the 79th minute to add to Danny Ings’ double against the Terriers and help the Clarets to their first three points of 2014. It was his first goal since being credited with Burnley’s second in the triumph over Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium in October.

And the defender is delighted to make another appearance on the scoresheet: “It’s a good start to the year with a goal and an assist for Ings. More importantly though we’ve got three points and we can kick on now.

“I remember Arfield playing it to Vokes and I carried on my third man run, my first touch took me past Smithies and then I’ve tucked it in. I was lucky because I think it hit every bit of woodwork possible. It was a good goal but I’m just glad we won.

“We were on top at the time. When I took it around him I was confident but I had to lift it a bit and it went in. I’m delighted to get on the scoresheet. Most importantly - even though we conceded two goals - we won and kept that home run going.”

He added: “A few of the lads were saying they want me to play in the hole on Saturday just behind Vokesy so it looks like Ings could get dropped! It rarely happens to me.

“The gaffer always wants us to go and be the one to make a difference; there were a lot of us that did that today. I thought everybody played their part.

“I’m trying to beat last year’s total of 11 assists and I’m not far away now with a lot of games to go. I just need to keep getting the balls in and hope that somebody gets on the end of them.”

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