BROWNHILL SALUTES HIS DOME COMFORTS

JOSH BROWNHILL has graduated to Burnley regular thanks to his brothers’ school of hard knocks.

Brownhill’s dad built a mini football pitch in their back garden for him and his older brothers Lewis and Joel to play on as kids.

He put down artificial grass and netting to stop the ball flying into the neighbours’ gardens and Lewis dubbed it the Poundland Soccer Dome. The three of them played on it every day and Brownhill quickly learned how to look after himself because

Lewis is nine years older than him and Joel four.

“It’s been competitive since I can remember,” said the Burnley midfielder (above). “We used to be on that mini pitch all the time, from when I was five.

“I remember when I first came through at Preston at 17 and I was getting kicked because I was small, it was exactly what happened in our back garden. My brothers would treat me as if I was their age.

“I was quite good at football, I could handle the football very well, so if I scored or did something against them, they didn’t like it because I was younger than them.

“They’ve both played at a decent level, they’ve both got plenty of non-League experience, so they helped me toughen up.

“They taught me how to handle myself on the football pitch.”

The brothers also played inside when their parents were out, breaking some of their mum’s prized mini jazz-band figures.

“There are stories of us playing football in the house and breaking things,” said Brownhill, 25. “I was way too young to fix them so Lewis would glue them back together.

“For ages my mum and dad didn’t have a clue what we were doing. It was great fun, but the moments we broke stuff were scary.”

Brownhill’s tutelage under his siblings has paid dividends – he has established himself as a permanent fixture in midfield under Burnley boss Sean Dyche (above).

He is key to the Clarets in the middle of the park and was the only player in the Premier League to make 60 interceptions and 60 blocks last season.