JOE Rothwell insists he “won’t really take much notice” should he receive “a bit of stick” from Burnley fans tomorrow.

Rothwell joined Cherries from Burnley’s bitter Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers over the summer.

He could line up against the Clarets tomorrow, with the Championship club visiting Vitality Stadium in the third round of the FA Cup (3pm).

During his four-year stay at Ewood Park, Rothwell never came up against Burnley.

But he is well aware of the rivalry between the two clubs.

Asked if he expects a rough reaction from the travelling Burnley fans tomorrow given his Rovers past, Rothwell told the Daily Echo: “Well yeah, if they realise I was there, I’m sure I’ll get a bit of stick!

“But I don’t mind it. It’s all fun and games.

“It’s probably expected really. They don’t really like each other, the two clubs!

“I won’t really take much notice of it. It’s probably bound to happen, isn’t it?”

He added: “When I was there, they were always in the Premier League, so we never came across them.

“They don’t really like each other.

“I never really came across them when I was there, so I couldn’t really grasp why, I imagine it’s because they’re so close.

“But I watched the game when they played each other a few weeks ago and you could tell they don’t really like each other!”

Asked if he is eyeing up a goal against Burnley for his friends back at Blackburn, Rothwell said: “It would be nice.

“It would be nice for myself as well, but I’m sure there will be a few watching – I still speak to quite a few of them.”

For Cherries, the FA Cup offers some respite after slipping to 16th in the Premier League table, following three defeats in eight days, culminating in a 3-0 loss at Manchester United on Tuesday.

Burnley meanwhile sit top of the Championship, having lost just three matches in all competitions across the whole season so far.

“I’ve watched them a few times and I’m really impressed,” said Rothwell of the challenge posed by the Clarets.

“Obviously they’re playing a different style of football under (Vincent) Kompany and it’s working for them.

“They’re cruising at the minute in the league. I expect it’ll be no different coming here tomorrow.

“They’ll want to get the ball down and play and they’ll look to make it a difficult afternoon for us.

“But we’ve got to go out there and play as we can and hopefully we can get a positive result.”

He added: “We’ve had a bit of a tough run in the league recently. It’s probably come at a good time, take our mind off the league and concentrate on a different competition.

“But we’ll go about it in the same way we always do. We’ll look to go out there and get a positive result.

“Hopefully tomorrow is a springboard for us to kick on and have a strong finish to the end of the season.”