Clarets star: Crowd made a big difference

JAMES Tarkowski has taken note of the ‘huge following’ who are ‘really trying to push’ Newcastle United on after the Burnley defender played in front of the club’s new owners for the first time on Saturday.

Newcastle intend to bring in reinforcements when the January transfer window opens next month and Tarkowski is among those players who are on the club’s radar.

Frank McParland, who has served as an advisor to Amanda Staveley, previously helped signed Tarkowski for Brentford during his time as the Bees’ director of football and the defender’s contract situation has not gone unnoticed.

The England centre-back is approaching the final six months of his deal and it remains to be seen if Burnley are able to resist a big-money bid next month or if the centre-back opts to wait until the summer to assess his options.

Although Tarkowski was on the losing side, the 29-year-old put in a solid performance in front of watching part-owners Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi.

The defender made a goalsaving block to deny United before Callum Wilson eventually broke the deadlock in the 40th minute.

Newcastle managed to hang on to record their first win of the season and move level on points with Burnley in the table.

“A close game,” Tarkowski told Clarets+ after Burnley’s 1-0 defeat. “I thought we dominated more of the game than they did and they’ve got a huge following behind them at the minute, who’s really trying to push them on.

“I thought it was a good performance, really. It’s just them fine margins are not going our way, but we’ve got to be the ones to turn it around into our favour.”

Manager Dyche echoed the sentiments of his central defender, sharing his praise of Burnley’s firsthalf performance but felt a lack of cutting edge harmed them dearly in their quest for an equalising goal.

Asked on how damaging the defeat was, Dyche replied: “Not at all, I have been down this road before.

“The challenge for us is to have a clear-minded focus, it is our job to look after ourselves.

“We have been down this road before unfortunately where we have had to work to keep the right mentality.

“It is about adding those quality moments and finding the key moments and we have done that before so it is important we remember that, reference it and use it wisely going forwards.”