HAVING joined a club that has spent the first half of the season failing to live up to expectations, Burnley stalwart Graham Alexander is convinced his new manager won't.

The Clarets unveiled Eddie Howe as their new boss last weekend, ending a two-and-a-half week wait which stretched back to the Iron's 2-0 victory at Turf Moor at the end of December, after which Brian Laws bit the bullet.

Laws' exit came as a result of a failure to make Burnley an established figure in the top six, during a season in which promotion was the aim.

Careful with cash and prepared to give large sections of their play-off-winning squad a chance to perform at a higher level, many people were impressed with the way the Clarets went about life in the Premier League.

Few share the same view when it comes to the current campaign.

Until, it seems, the arrival of Howe.

Having dragged Bournemouth from the bottom of League Two to the top of League One inside 24 months, the 33-year-old's CV would be impressive for any coach, let alone one so young.

Former Iron defender Alexander though, is confident the new man has the talent to make his mark.

"The training has been really good and he's put a couple of ideas across already," Alexander told the Telegraph.

"He has only been managing for a couple of seasons, but he's brought a freshness and new ideas, which is hard in football.

"He's determined and ambitious, which is good for us because the players are the same.

"It's hard to make a stamp on a team after a few days of training, but he seems to be a man who knows what he wants and how to get it.

"He did an unbelievable job at Bournemouth. Hopefully, and I think he will, he can do the same at Burnley.

"Everyone is excited about the second part of the season because we've got a good feeling about things, one we can do something."

To read Alexander's thoughts on playing under a manager six years his junior, and 'coming home' to Glanford Park for the first time in more than a decade, see a four-page match preview in Friday's Scunthorpe Telegraph.