WHEN Lincoln’s players line up in the Turf Moor tunnel just before 12.30pm tomorrow, Sean Dyche will have a fair idea of what they are going through.

The non-leaguers, having already beaten two Championship sides to reach this stage, will be seeking to add a Premier League scalp to their tally.

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The Imps will head to Turf Moor as huge underdogs but that is something Dyche experienced as a player in Chesterfield’s stunning run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1997 where they dumped out then Premier League side Nottingham Forest and the reigning First Division champions Bolton Wanderers before bowing out to Middlesbrough after a replay.

“You don’t know every detail of how other teams prepare, but I remember the feeling, the one-off side of it where players sometimes raise and play beyond their norms so you have to safeguard against that,” warned Dyche of Lincoln.

“And you’ve got to deliver your performance and not think you have a divine right to win. It just doesn’t work like that.

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“But we’ve made a good show of that in the time I’ve been here, we know that the games are hard to win and you don’t take anything for granted.

“I’m pretty sure in my own mind we’ll be ready, but we still have to make sure and do all the detail.”

Lincoln are bidding to become the first non-league side in the post-war era to reach the quarter-finals, while Burnley are looking to reach that stage for the first time in 14 years.

While Dyche can remember the positives of going into a cup tie as underdog, he insists it can work the opposite way as well, with nerves to be overcome and a different build-up for Lincoln, who aren’t used to the TV exposure and national interest.

“I get a feeling of what they’re likely to be saying and likely to be thinking, how the players will be motivating themselves,” the Clarets boss said.

“Alongside that there’s a lot of nerves and tension, It’s different for them, it’s not their norm.

“It’s at Turf Moor in front of the cameras, we do that a lot now, it’s all new to them.

“With all the good things that come with a cup run there’s a lot of other things that start playing with the psyche.

“You’re doing events and people are turning up at the training ground, the TV cameras are there and people want you to go and do visits locally. They’re all different to the norm so that can play tricks as well.

“It can work against you as well as for you.”

The Clarets are short-priced favourites to claim another home win and put their name in the hat for Sunday’s quarter-final draw.

Defeat could make them the big story of fifth round weekend, but Dyche insists the determination to avoid embarrassment will not act as extra incentive.

“Not for us. I imagine some do but it’s not for us,” he said. “We just worry about getting on with our business, the aftermath comes naturally, good or bad.

“We’re not thinking what’s past the game, we’ve got to play the game first before we worry about anything else.”