BROWNHILL DELIGHTED TO BE BACK FOR BORO TEST

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Midfielder talks approaching business end of the season

2023-04-06T16:33:04.056Z

BROWNHILL DELIGHTED TO BE BACK FOR BORO TEST

Midfielder talks approaching business end of the season

2023-04-06T16:33:04.056Z

Midfielder talks approaching business end of the season

Josh Brownhill faced the media on Thursday ahead of Burnley's visit to Middlesbrough.

Following last Friday's draw against Sunderland, the midfielder is looking forward to what's set to be a big Easter weekend for the Clarets, with the visit of Sheffield United to Turf Moor just three days after the trip to the Riverside stadium.

“Everybody’s really excited [for the weekend]. These are the games you want to play in, the best in the league, on this weekend as well, where anything can happen. It’s coming up to the business end of the season and it’s two games we’re really looking forward to.”

“Middlesbrough are a very, very good team, with a really good manager. Throughout the season they’ve had really good form, and probably didn’t get the results they wanted the last few games, but there’s no hiding that they are a very, very good team and it’s going to be very difficult to beat them.”

The home side will be a tough challenge, having been 21st in the table when Michael Carrick took over in October 2022, and now sitting in third place.

“I don’t think there’s any surprise there [the way Carrick has them playing], the work he was doing at Man United as well and how he was as a player, the standards that you could see and the demands on everybody, it’s no surprise that they have got to where they’ve got.

“We know it’s going to be very difficult but we’re a team that’s in really good form and have been throughout the majority of the season, so it’s going to be an exciting game for sure.”

BROWNHILL DELIGHTED TO BE BACK FOR BORO TEST - Image 1

Brownhill picked up an ankle injury when the Clarets travelled to Blackpool in early March and played his first 90 minutes against Sunderland.

“I’m 100% pretty much now, I’d say 99% maybe. It was disappointing obviously to get an injury, at that time. I’ve been lucky throughout my career to pretty much not have any injuries and for me that was quite an annoying one but yes I’m back now, feeling really fit. I got through the last game and played 90 minutes, which is crucial for me to get back to that top fitness that I was at.”

The Clarets have enjoyed a club record 19 goal scorers so far this season and are the top goal scorers in the football league, meanwhile Brownhill himself has enjoyed his best goal return in his career.

When asked if this made Friday's goalless draw against Sunderland a surprise, he replied: “Yes [it was a bit of a surprise]. I think the games we’ve gone and not scored; I’ve been very surprised. There’s not been many of them this year, but you go throughout the team and the quality we’ve got in all departments it’s frustrating to come away when we don’t score. Like I say, you go into a game and you look around and there’s players who can score from anywhere really, set pieces, corners, individual brilliances or team goals, there’s pretty much everything in there so to come away and not have scored is very disappointing.”

The away allocation at the Riverside Stadium has sold out and a busy Turf Moor is expected on Easter Monday, with the midfielder full of praise for the support offered to the team this season.

“I was just talking about this on the way in then with Bailey [Peacock-Farrell], we were talking about how good the fans have been this year. I think we’ve got in the top 5 highest attendances in the division, obviously the stadium doesn’t hold a super amount but it’s always full, which is good. I think our away attendances have been pretty much top 2, or top 1, throughout the season, so the fans have been outstanding. Especially at home, you can see our results at home have been very, very good and you can tell that when everybody’s there, we’re all in it together and it’s been a difficult place to beat. The fans have definitely played their part for sure.”

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Having signed for the Clarets in 2020, Brownhill has seen a huge transition at the Club, and talked about the contrast in emotions compared to this time last season.

“Last year we were starting to feel a bit more pressure in the area you don’t want to, obviously you’ve got that behind you of potentially being relegated and you think you need to get a few points. I feel like over the years I’ve been here, or over the years before then, you start to get to that period - we’ve been here before, we’ll be fine because you sort of know the pressure and you’re going to get the wins. However, at this stage of last season it wasn’t looking great and you’re sort of thinking we need this win, we need points and we didn’t really get it.

“Whereas this time around, this year we’re less pressured, there’s still pressure obviously for going up, with a few games that are coming up because we want to get over the line as quick as possible because nothing’s done yet. It’s good pressure, it’s more relaxed pressure because we’ve earnt that gap, what we’ve got at the moment from third, and it’s these games that we can go in, enjoy, with a little bit of pressure.”

It's been quite a season for Burnley, who sit top of the Championship heading into the Easter break. When asked at what point in the season he started to think something special was happening at the Club, he said: “I would say the first game of the season. For us all the hard work that we put in in pre-season, the changes that went on at the club and everything, it was like, to have that first game of the season and to play the way that we did. I remember sitting in the changing rooms and thinking you can see what’s happening, you can see everything that we’ve been working on worked.

"Obviously, it’s not going to be like that throughout the whole season but I think that gave confidence to players, new players that had come in, the new system, can certain players play in the new system and a new way. Everyone looked round and I thought yeah we can, we’ve got some very good players here and if we continue to do this then we’ll be fine.

“I remember after the Stoke game, I think it was at home, and we conceded very late on to draw. There was a bit of like, we kept drawing and you think we’re playing well but the results aren’t coming. However, after that we started flying, we were conceding similar chances, but we were not conceding them in goals, and a few games after that we look around and think we’re on form now, these wins are coming in, we’re playing well and we’re scoring loads of goals, so I think any time after that.”

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