BURNLEY caretaker manager Mike Jackson will carry on with the job in hand after being told to prepare the team for the next step in their Premier League survival battle against Wolves on Sunday. Jackson and his interim coaching staff guided the Clarets to a crucial 2-0 win over Southampton in front of a raucous crowd at Turf Moor on Thursday night.
Mike Jackson said: “We have just spoken (with the chairman) and he just asked us to carry on for the game on Sunday. There is a process going on in the background, so we just crack on and prepare for Sunday’s game. Our focus is taken up with preparing the team. That has been the pure focus, and he (Pace) has just let us get on with it and we have just been focusing on the football side of it. It has been literally – move to the next game, take the team and then move on from there. There is a lot going on and a lot to think about, but there are good people around to help you – you can’t do this on your own.”
Since the surprise sacking of Dyche, the Clarets have taken four points from two games, building on a battling 1-1 draw at West Ham by seeing off the Saints with first-half goals by defenders Connor Roberts and Nathan Collins.
Mike Jackson said: “We just made little tweaks, including just remembering who they are. They came together and it galvanized them.”
Sunday’s game will present an opportunity for Burnley to drag themselves out of the bottom three, albeit only potentially for a few hours ahead of the Merseyside derby at Anfield. Jackson, though, knows another fully-focused display will be needed against a Wolves side seeking a response from their last match on April 8 which ended in a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle.
Mike Jackson said: “I think every team in the Premier League is dangerous – if you sleep for a moment then you get cut open. There are good sides with top-class managers and good players, so we have got to be on it. Wolves is a club with a clear identity of how they play, but they are very difficult to play against. We have got to try and find those weaknesses.”
