THE pre-season friendlies seem to have gone well for Burnley and I was really impressed by what I saw of Tendayi Darikwa during Michael Duff’s testimonial match on Saturday.

The club brought in Matt Lowton from Aston Villa earlier in the summer and it looks like he’s now an injury doubt for the start for the season.

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I haven’t seen anything at all of Lowton yet but certainly from what I saw of Darikwa on Saturday we should have no worries at right back, because he looked capable of replacing Kieran Trippier.

His distribution was very good and he never missed a tackle. He got forward a lot too, just like Trippier used to do.

The manager has the squad well prepared and he is an inspiration to the players, so I think we can challenge for promotion.

The manager has said that Michael Duff still has a big part to play at the club. Michael said he hoped his testimonial match wouldn’t be the end of his Burnley career but I am sure it won’t be. His time at the club will go for a while yet.

On Sunday I went to watch the ex-Clarets play up at Nelson.

They had people like Andy Payton, David Eyres, Liam Robinson and John Deary playing, and they always make me feel welcome when I go to watch. Andy Payton always calls me a leg end!

They were playing much younger opposition but they ran rings around them, they showed their experience.

Finally I’d like to wish sports reporter Chris Flanagan all the best for the future when he leaves the Telegraph this week. He won’t have to read any more of my rubbish!