Joey Barton has set his sights upon returning to the Premier League after scoring the only goal of the game in the win over Preston North End.
Despite his less than stellar reputation in the game, Barton found a new home in the form of Burnley. The club had aspirations of returning to the Premier League, but few would have hope that Barton would play such a crucial role in the objective. The 33-year-old came up with a goal against Preston and also ended up as the man of the match to see Burnley move to the top of the table.
The victory allowed Burnley to take advantage of the two dropped points by Middlesbrough in their encounter. Only recently, Boro had passed Burnley into the second spot. There are three teams fighting for the top two places, which will give qualification straight to the Premier league. The next four teams, however, will be involved in the play-offs, which has won been seen as a gamble. Barton says that Burnley are not only thinking about promotion, but they also want to win the title. Burnley have certainly benefited a lot from the experience provided by the former England international.
Barton has been a regular making 38 appearances in all competitions. “The aim is to win the league, it’s not to get promoted, it’s to win the title. It was important we put a marker down, it was on Sky, a Friday night game with our rivals watching. I think 1-0 flatters them, we played some great football at times and you’re thinking if you don’t kill a team off they’ve got a chance and last 10 minutes we had to hang in there, but that’s what we do, it’s a fantastic group and we were cheered on by a wall of claret and blue, it was magnificent,” said Barton.
