GRAHAM Alexander believes Burnley can go into their inaugural Premier League season firing on all cylinders.

The Clarets racked up a total of 14 different goalscorers last summer, scoring 20 goals between them in nine pre-season games. And after just three out of eight friendlies this year they are already halfway to matching that figure.

Newly promoted Burnley go into tonight’s game against Portland Timbers in Oregon with seven players now off the mark, after five contributed to a 5-0 win over Premier Development League side Ventura County Fusion on Tuesday.

Alexander sat out the midweek rout but is expected to face United Soccer League First Division leaders Timbers as the Clarets bring their second successive tour of America to a close in what has been billed as an ‘international exhibition match’ at PGE Park (kick-off 7pm local time, 3am BST).

And he believes the signs for the forthcoming campaign are promising.

“It would be great to get as many people on the scoresheet as possible like last pre-season,” said the 37-year-old, who got the Clarets off the mark this summer in the opening friendly at Bradford.

“It’s about getting fit at the moment, but we want to get into a winning habit while also working hard to get our fitness levels.

“Training’s going really well and we put it into the game the other night.

“The lads played really well and scored some good goals and spread it around the team.

“With the amount of players we’ve got in the squad the manager wants to give players more than 45 minutes now and give different people different games.

“Four or five of us were out on Tuesday but hopefully we’ll be involved (tonight).”

After making up the 14,000-strong crowd to watch Timbers’ 0-0 draw with second placed Puerto Rico Raiders, the Clarets are expected to be watched by a five-figure crowd at PGE Park, where they will again play on an Astroturf surface.

“Now we’ve become a Premier League team since we were here last year though the interest has stepped up,” added Alexander, who had a watching brief in midweek along with Christian Kalvenes, Clarke Carlisle, Tyrone Mears, captain Steven Caldwell and last season’s top scorer Martin Paterson.

All are expected to be involved tonight, while manager Owen Coyle is expected to take another look at Ecuadorian trialist Fernando Guerrero with a view to making the 19-year-old former Real Madrid reserve midfielder a permanent signing.

Meanwhile, Wes Fletcher will complete a six-month loan move to Scottish First Division club Partick Thistle this weekend.

The 18-year-old, who scored 35 youth team goals last season, was one of five second-year scholars who signed professional deals and the second senior player this month to head north of the border on loan.

Midfielder Alex MacDonald has joined SPL side Falkirk until January, and after helping them to a 1-0 win in the Europa Cup second qualifying round first leg match against FC Vaduz, the teenager played the first 59 minutes of the return leg. But the Bairns went on to drop out of the competition by losing 2-1 in Liechtenstein.

Of Fletcher’s move to Firhill, Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall - a friend of Clarets’ boss Coyle - said: "We hope he can come in and launch a decent challenge to get into the first-team.

“He has a short spell of time to impress, and if he can come in and show what he can do, it will be good for all of us.

"Hopefully Thistle can benefit from that and the boy gets a few goals, I am sure Wes will relish the chance to play regular first-team football.”