Chris Lakey Glenn Roeder says he has no intention of trying to talk Dion Dublin into changing his summer retirement plans.The 38-year-old set City on their way to a vital win with a goal after 61 seconds on Saturday and again put in practically a full shift before making way for Gary Doherty with a minute of normal time remaining.

Chris Lakey

Glenn Roeder says he has no intention of trying to talk Dion Dublin into changing his summer retirement plans.

The 38-year-old set City on their way to a vital win with a goal after 61 seconds on Saturday and again put in practically a full shift before making way for Gary Doherty with a minute of normal time remaining.

But Dublin's 20-year career is now just four games from being over and although he shows no signs of letting up, Roeder says there is no chance the veteran striker will change his mind.

"No, he is emphatic about that," said the City manager. "And I have to say I think it is the right thing for him to do.

"I am endorsing what he wants to do and he won't allow anyone to change his mind - and I agree with him. He has been a magnificent human being first of all and alongside that a magnificent footballer. To get to his age and still playing at this level and scoring goals and playing well is testimony to what I have said about him.

"If I was him I wouldn't want to carry on and give younger players, if you want, the opportunity to get the better of him - to be quite honest, at his best those players wouldn't have been good enough to be on the same pitch as him.

"And I have always believed that top players should get out at the top. It is a personal opinion, but I don't like to see top, top players work their way down the divisions and I think it is important when he leaves the game at the end of this season he leaves the game with all of us in the football world remembering him for what he was - one of England's top old-fashioned strikers."

Roeder (pictured) was grateful for Dublin's early opener, but disappointed that City failed to capitalise on such an early advantage.

"You can never score too early and you can never score too late," he said. "But in between that - though I think we have played really well - I think we missed too many chances to wrap the game up.

"They are a good football team, Burnley. The manager asked his team to play football in the right manner, good football.

"They had a fair bit of possession as well but closely behind the importance of winning, I was delighted that we kept a clean sheet because generally speaking Marshy (goalkeeper David Marshall) didn't have too much to do and that was important for me, that we kept a clean sheet as well as win.

"But it was pretty frustrating waiting for that second goal to come and seeing chances go begging."

Roeder saw a major tactical change have an effect - but while moving Darren Huckerby to the right flank is not unusual, seeing the predominantly left-footed Matty Pattison the left right flank is.

However, the former Newcastle man, in the headlines recently after a drink-driving conviction, showed a new facet to his game.

"I thought he was fantastic today," Roeder said. "The only thing missing, which I would have liked him to have done, was score a goal. I thought he was absolutely terrific.

"He has come through a lot in the last coupe of weeks and he will learn from that experience and he has shown that he is a strong character. Where lesser people would have buckled, he hasn't, he has actually stepped on and done really well for us.

"He showed today what an intelligent footballer he is. I just felt that if we got Hucks over to the left side, which is probably where he prefers to play, he could give Graham Alexander a lot of problems, which he did."