BURNLEY'S goal hero from the weekend, Steven Thompson, is hoping to taste the high-life with an extended run in the FA Cup after missing out on Burnley’s Carling Cup adventure.

His six-minute cameo for Cardiff in the first round tie against Bournemouth ruled him out of Burnley’s march to the semi-finals as they came within two minutes of a trip to Wembley.

But Thompson is hoping to help Burnley beat West Bromwich Albion tonight to book their place in the fifth round against the winner of either Arsenal or Cardiff – which will take place on February 14.

He said: “I missed out on all the Carling Cup stuff so it would be nice (to have a run in the competition).

“It will be a difficult game, obviously against another Premier League side but I think we’ve shown this year already against Premier League teams that we’re more than capable of matching them.

“It will be another tough game for us but hopefully it will be one that we can win and just kick on, onwards and upwards.”

And Thompson believes that the Clarets’ frantic schedule won’t effect their chances either in the FA Cup or their assault on the Championship play-offs after he led a Burnley revival with two late goals to beat Charlton.

“It hasn't been tiring for me because I've been on the bench for most of them!” he joked.

“But I don't think you sense tiredness. We came back and won that game in the last 20 minutes and you saw the energy; we looked fitter and stronger than Charlton did in thelast 20 minutes so I don't think there's any way you can say that the boys are fatigued, and I don't think they would swap the cup runs for anything.

“All right, we've been unlucky and dropped our standards in the league a bit but, hopefully, now we can get back on track, and I wouldn't use tiredness and fatigue as an excuse at all.I don't think that comes into it.

“In this league the amount of Saturday-Tuesday games is unbelievable anyway, even without the cup. Basically you just cut back the training that you're doing in between the games to keep the legs fresh.

“We have got a particularly fit bunch of boys, so it's not a concern at all.”