Ashley Barnes: 'Non-league football toughened me up'

Ashley Barnes has said that playing non-league football rather than going through an academy helped toughen him up as a player.

The Burnley striker, who scored his first Premier League goal earlier this month, played for Southern League side Paulton Rovers as a teenager before joining Plymouth Argyle in 2007.

The 25-year-old told the Lancashire Telegraph: "I think I have played in nearly every league possible. It's been an unbelievable journey and I don't want it to stop. [Playing for Paulton Rovers is] what made me into what I am and where I am now.

"If it wasn't for there I don't know where I could have been so I have every right to thank them. I had a few sniffs of clubs wanting me when I was younger but I was happy playing men's football.

"I didn't want to go through the apprentice kind of youth side. I was happy to play men's football and get smashed around everywhere. When I was 16 and 17 I was playing with the men and getting kicked to pieces. It toughened me up a little bit and I have gone from there."

Burnley face Stoke City this afternoon.