Burnley touching the top of the Championship table in the week leading up to the east Lancashire derby had Turf Moor historians reaching for the statistics. Should the home side prevail when Blackburn Rovers are the visitors on Saturday Sean Dyche will become the first Burnley manager in more than 35 years to achieve the double over the local rivals, and should his players stay on course for automatic promotion they will become only the 12th team to take the direct route back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

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Considering 67 teams have been relegated over the course of the Premier League that is not bad going, although Dyche does not normally like to be regarded as a frontrunner. The last time Burnley achieved promotion they did so almost by stealth, surprising themselves as much as their fans with their steady climb up the table, and Dyche preferred not to talk too much about what might be possible until the feat had been accomplished. “I’m a different animal now,” the manager says.

“I don’t think I actually banned talk of promotion two years ago, I just wanted to take one match at a time. The difference this time is you accept from the beginning that you will be roughly thought of as candidates. The bookies made us fifth or sixth favourites to go up and, all things considered, I think that’s about right. We have lost a few key players since last season but brought in some good replacements, the team is getting stronger all the time and we have earned the right to be in the promotion running. We have kept the core of the squad together, we work very well as a group and we are in a healthy situation. I couldn’t be more delighted with where the club is at the moment from the situation it was in when I arrived.”

Dyche is proud, too, that of the three “top-quality” players Burnley lost last summer – Kieran Trippier, Danny Ings and Jason Shackell – two of them joined top-six clubs. “Not bad for little old Burnley,” he says. There was never any danger of a mass exodus, though, which is one reason why the bookmakers thought Burnley would do well this season – and clearly there is something within the club’s present ethos that players enjoy. “I’ve never known a better dressing-room spirit,” Matt Lowton, a summer recruit from Aston Villa, says. “There are no cliques here, everyone gets on with each other socially and we all support each other on the pitch. A lot of that has to be down to the manager. I believe he does a lot of character checks before he signs players, just to make sure they have the right character to fit in at the club and into his way of working.”

Dyche does not deny that, he just says it is refreshing to find players keen to stay when they could be earning more money elsewhere. “We are not the best payers,” he says. “Not in this division, and certainly not in the Premier League, but players seem to like what we do. They enjoy the way we work, they can see the club growing in front of their eyes. A few years ago the training pitch was just a quagmire; now we have enhanced the whole training ground and it looks great. Plus, we win a lot, which generally keeps players happy. In this division anyway but, as we all know, the Premier League is a completely different proposition.”

Blackburn beat Middlesbrough in their most recent match, with Dyche watching from the stand, so there is little danger he will take his derby opponents for granted. “Blackburn are a good side, they have good players and a good manager. Bolton are, too, for that matter. They didn’t make it easy for us last week. This division can be funny like that. The league table doesn’t exactly lie but it can twist your thinking if you aren’t careful.”

With Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn in the same week, Burnley must feel they are playing for Lancashire pride at the top of the Championship but Dyche merely smiles when asked if he has noticed any greater intensity in training in preparation for the derby Saturday. “We don’t need greater intensity – we can rely on that no matter who we are playing,” he explains. “That is the whole basis of what we do. You can’t win every game but you can sweat in every game. As long as my players do that, I am happy and the supporters are happy. I know perfectly well that games against Blackburn mean a great deal to the people of this area but my focus is always on the performance. I don’t need to overthink the rest.”