Vydra 'hard to play against' - Jackson

The New Zealand international became only the third player to score a first half treble away from home in the Premier League, following Chris Sutton for Blackburn at Aston Villa in August 1997, and Michael Owen for Liverpool at Newcastle 12 months later.

It was Burnley’s biggest away win in the top-flight since a 4-0 victory at Sunderland in November 1965, and gave Sean Dyche’s side a huge lift in their efforts to secure safety, which they ultimately did by 11 points.

But while Wood, who left the club for Newcastle for £25m in January, claimed all the headlines that day, it was the performance of Czech Republic international Matej Vydra which planted the seeds for Sunday’s vital 1-0 win over Wolves at Turf Moor.

Vydra had started seven-successive games before being left out at Manchester United, as Dyche opted for Josh Brownhill playing off Wood in a five-ma midfield.

The former Watford man was restored to the starting line-up at Molineux, and was the perfect foil for Wood.

With the game goal-less, he latched onto Willy Boly's poor header back to Rui Patricio, with the Ivory Coast defender forced into a desperate challenge, with penalty claims ignored.

After two goals from Wood, the Clarets ran riot, and Vydra volleyed over from close range, before Wood headed in a third.

After the break, Vydra looked to have made it 4-0, rounding Patricio only for his effort to be chalked off by VAR for offside, before Ashley Westwood lashed in to seal a memorable victory.

In among Jackson’s preparations for Sunday’s game, he watched that meeting last year, and, with Maxwel Cornet struggling with a knee niggle, and Aaron Lennon nursing a similar issue, he shifted Jay Rodriguez to the left, to allow Vydra to play alongside Wout Weghorst.

Vydra also played from the left during the game, but popped up with a clinical finish from Weghorst’s centre to win the game, and Jackson explained his decision to start him: “With Vyds, I watched Burnley play Wolves a year ago, and he caused them murder.

“So our thinking was ‘let him go’, because he is a threat.”

Vydra has been working his way back to full match fitness after a hernia operation in January, and subsequent dislocated shoulder, and Jackson added: “If we can get him proper match fit, because he hasn’t played in a while, he is hard to play against.”

Lennon came off the bench to replace Vydra with 19 minutes remaining, and Jackson said: “Aaron has been carrying a knee injury, and the thinking was that we didn’t want to lose Aaron and Max at the same time.

"We couldn’t take that risk, but we knew Aaron could get a certain amount of game time, and when he came on he did terrific.”