A YEAR after he made his Clarets debut, striker Robbie Blake is determined to mark the anniversary with victory against Reading at Turf Moor tomorrow.

The player who replaced Ian Moore 24 minutes from time against the Baggies a year ago was a pale imitation of the man who netted his 11th goal of the season at Brentford last weekend.

But he insisted there is plenty more to come, not only from himself but from the rest of the Burnley team.

"I still don't think I am playing to my full potential but I hope I can stay fit and keep improving by playing games," he said.

"It looks as if we are near the bottom of the table but in reality we are only five points off the play-offs. All the lads are still confident and we feel we are playing well."

That was not the case in the opening weeks of the season but Blake promised that they are looking forward to putting right everything that went wrong in the 3-0 defeat at the Madejski Stadium.

"The team that will play tomorrow will be a totally different to the one that played down there," he vowed, recalling the night that ended with a severe blast from manager Stan Ternent after a fourth straight loss.

"At that time we were struggling for form and confidence and it was very hard. At the start of the season things just weren't going, we weren't getting the breaks but then we went on an unbeaten run of about 15 games and now we really feel we will be there or thereabouts."

The Clarets' current run is seven games unbeaten but Blake knows they have to start winning games, starting tomorrow.

Keeping the 26-year-old striker fit and in form will be vital to any push for the play-offs as he has not only contributed goals himself, he has regularly been a provider of chances for team mates.

But having scored six times from the spot this season, he did confess: "I was relieved to score a goal from open play last weekend because I had begun to wonder when I would get another one.

"I still think that if I am given chances to score I am confident I will but it was nice to get one anyway. Mind you, even if you have a penalty it still has to be put away."

After the slow start to his Clarets career, Blake is clearly determined to make up for lost time. That is why he is hoping that there will be two reasons to celebrate tomorrow evening, three points and a year as a Claret.