Strikers are supposed to be sharp, but sometimes they are also required to be blunt. Andy Payton, scorer of 27 league goals this season for Burnley, speaks plainly as he describes the events which have completed the circle of his career. Discarded by his hometown team in 1985 as a dreamy schoolboy, he returned in January 1998, with his pride dented once more. "I came here from Huddersfield in a swap for a lad called Paul Barnes - no disrespect, but he wasn't really in my league."

The previous season Payton had scored 17 goals for Huddersfield, but while he was recovering from a hernia, Brian Horton, the manager who signed him, was sacked and replaced by Peter Jackson. The new manager offered some euphemisms that Payton does not bother to repeat. "He didn't like me, basically. I said: 'You're joking, aren't you? I have just scored 17 goals in the First Division.' He went: 'Blah, blah, blah,' and I said 'I'll go'."

Burnley were bottom of the Second Division then, as Chris Waddle failed to make the transition to management smoothly. "I was under a bit of pressure. If you don't do well it's always worse for local lads who know supporters, but it has worked out well." Fuelled by Payton's goalscoring feats, which have kept another former Celtic striker, Ian Wright, on the bench, and the lower-division expertise of Stan Ternent, their manager, they are contemplating the First Division after yesterday's 2-1 victory over Scunthorpe earned them automatic promotion.

Payton admits leaving Celtic, after Liam Brady was replaced by Lou Macari in 1993, was probably his "biggest mistake". He scored 16 goals in 35 League games in Scotland, no mean feat as the club was heading for bankruptcy off the pitch and Rangers were dominant on it. He treasures a goal in a 2-1 Old Firm victory most. The factors which tugged him southwards were family ones. After a divorce, Payton was badly missing his son, who had moved to Hull.

Barnsley, the club he joined, was much closer. It immediately hit him that after a brief flirtation with the big time he was back at the level at which he has spent most of his career - the English First Division. Despite proving himself one of the rare breed of strikers that score 20 goals per season regardless of how the team they are playing in performs, Payton has never made it to the Premiership. His transfer to Celtic stopped him reaching it as part of Lennie Lawrence's Middlesbrough team in 1992.

Self-pity could have set in had Payton not been obsessed by goalscoring. He can quote his own record and the totals of this season's top marksmen in both Scotland and England without catching breath. After several second places, yesterday at least brought him his first golden boot as the top scorer in a division. Payton's record of 187 League goals in 383 games shows he can be relied upon to score once every 180 minutes. Apart from the hernia at Huddersfield and a broken jaw as a 24-year-old at Hull City, he has escaped serious injury and recently signed a new three-year contract with Burnley. "The main thing," he says with a determined gaze, "is never to rest on your laurels."

The club's training ground, lined with pine trees, nestles next to Gawthorpe Hall, a National Trust property. A few hundred yards away are the estate that Payton grew up on and the secondary school he attended. When he left it in 1984, he joined Burnley dreaming of emulating Trevor Steven, whose outstanding midfield performances as a teenager at Turf Moor had won him a transfer to Everton and set him on the road to multi-million pound moves to Rangers and Marseille.

The road out of Burnley for Payton was less dazzling. He was released by Arthur Bellamy, then the youth coach, now the groundsman, when John Bond, the cigar-smoking, bracelet-wearing former manager of Manchester City and Norwich City, was busy emptying the Burnley coffers with ludicrous fees and wages for some of his ageing former charges. He bears no grudge to Bellamy at least, judging by the smiles and banter that are exchanged as the groundsman enters his cottage by the training ground. Needless to say, the lawn is perfectly manicured and Bellamy leans earnestly across his wooden gate to assert that Payton is "the man" to get Burnley to the First Division.

After failing to make the grade at Burnley, Payton moved to Hull, where he was converted from midfielder to striker by Horton and from boy into man by the bruising target-man Billy Whitehurst, a player that Colin Calderwood once remarked frightened him more than Ronaldo ever could. His development continued under Ternent and a bond between the two still exists. Ternent, like Payton, has completed the circle of his career by returning to Burnley. As a manager, Ternent has conjured promotion on a shoestring at Bury and has continued to perform minor miracles at Turf Moor. "When I was a young lad at Hull, he brought my game on a lot," Payton said. "He's big on discipline, a good coach and a players' manager. He may be an unfashionable name, but he's transformed this club."

To raise hackles in Burnley, you need do nothing more than mention the nouveau riche a few miles back along the M65 at Blackburn. Promotion would mean the chance to bloody the expensive noses of Graeme Souness's team and Payton, being a Burnley fan, is wonderfully indignant. "I remember playing for Hull City at Blackburn eight years ago and they were lucky to get 6,000. Then Jack Walker pumped in millions and they just went big-time. We've got a nice stadium and a lot bigger fan base than Blackburn. If we go up I reckon we could get 17,000 at home and we've got a good away support, too." This season, crowds have averaged over 10,000, which is 10% of Burnley's population.

Payton has never been back to Scotland since leaving Celtic and although he still takes a keen interest in his former club's results, he believes the Old Firm rivalry has lost some of its allure because of the influx of foreign players. Those who pursue goals are rarely to be found looking backwards and Payton is no different. "Once you go past 200 goals you want 250 and then you want 300. I want to score 100 goals for Burnley because that will put me in a special bracket of players and I want to play as long as possible because I don't feel my age [32] at all."

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