Vokes happy to settle down after finding his footballing home

The 24-year-old signed a two year extension to his contract on Monday, taking him through to the summer of 2017, after a superb first half of the season.

The Wales international has netted 11 goals so far, in the Championship’s most prolific partnership with 20-goal Danny Ings.

And after spells with Bournemouth, Wolves, Leeds United, Bristol City, Sheffield United, Norwich City and Brighton, he is delighted to finally feel settled.

Vokes said of his new deal: “The time was right. I’m at a good place in my career and I wanted to secure it here.

“It’s something we’ve been working on and we’ve managed to do it this week.

“I’m happy on and off the field, and it’s a great place to be at the moment.

“It’s good to secure my future for the next three and a half years, and hopefully I can push on now.

“It feels like home and hopefully I can settle down and continue doing well.

“I’ve moved all around the country, and it’s nice to be here and settled.

“I like the way the club works, and how the staff and manager work, it’s a good place to be.”

Vokes has started every league game so far this season, after appearing in every game last term, but only making four starts after a summer move from Wolves.

He has seized his chance after the sale of Charlie Austin to QPR: “I feel a lot more confident in my own play and feel like I’ve improved a lot under the current manager. It’s been a good season so far.

“On a personal level we’ve done a lot of work together on and off the field, and it seems to be paying off.

“In the first year I was limited to chances in the side due to probably Charlie (Austin) doing so well.

“Now this year I’ve got my chance and it seems to be paying off, and the club have rewarded me.”

Vokes is one goal away from his best goal tally in a season, having hit 12 for Bournemouth six years ago, and he would love to match that at Yeovil tomorrow: “Another one will equal my best, so hopefully I can get that sooner rather than later. I’m not setting targets, I just want to take every game as it comes, but as a striker you want to be scoring goals in every game.”

If Vokes hasn’t scored, Ings has, with the pair scoring 72% of Burnley’s league goals so far - 26 of 36, and he is enjoying partnering another former Cherries forward: “We’ll keep the secret in the dressing room, but we’ve worked hard and hopefully more can come from it.

“It comes quite naturally.

“We’ve started off well, we’re only halfway through so hopefully we can chip in with a few more. From the first game of the season we seem to have worked well together and we’ve just kicked on from there.

“We’re opposite sorts of players that work well together.

“I think we’ve brought the best out in each other, especially with the goals we’ve scored this year, a lot of them have come with link-up play between the two of us.

“I’ve got some chasing to do though to catch him!”

And he sees no reason why the Clarets can’t maintain their promotion charge: “We’ve had a great start to the season, we’re halfway through, at the top end, and we’ve got a good enough squad to push on.

“We’ve proved to the league this year, and everyone else, that we’ve got the strength to do that and keep going for the next four months.

“We’ve gone to teams with bigger budgets and shown what we’re all about,

“It’s been a tough season, and it’s a physically demanding league with the amount of fixtures we’ve got, so it’s important that we keep going and keep strong.”