CLARETS boss Steve Cotterill believes the New Year could signal a new dawn for goalscoring midfielder Garreth O'Connor.

The Irish ace ended a drought stretching back to October 15 with a consolation goal in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday - the first time Burnley have dropped points at home since losing to Leeds that same day.

And Cotterill hopes that seventh goal of the season could be just the spur O'Connor needs to rediscover his goal-den touch.

"Garreth has been out of the team for a little while, but I just felt he had peaked after starting slowly and then dipped a little bit," explained Cotterill.

"He probably needed to step out of things and look back into the arena. That rest may have done him a little bit of good and hopefully the goal will have done him even more good."

O'Connor gets the first chance to add to his tally at Loftus Road today as Burnley head to QPR for the fourth festive game in eight madcap days (3pm KO).

And Cotterill feels the hectic Christmas programme has contributed to back-to-back league defeats for the first time since the start of the season.

He said: "If we had a bigger budget and more seasoned professionals, you would find that we do better when the games are crammed in.

"If you look at when we've had good runs, it's when the games are spaced out and we have time for the players to come down during the week and then get up for the next one.

"We find it quite hard when we have to play quickly and unless anybody comes in with a couple of million quid, things won't change."

He added: "At this club, money is the bane of my life, along with budgets, players and fatigue.

"I spend my life worrying about the lads and it would be really nice to go home after telling four of five players to have a rest. But I can't do that and that's just the way it is."