Coach Ivan Cleary's confidence in a Matt Burton bounce back has been rewarded, with the Dubbo junior and current Penrith Panthers halfback tallying up a double in the Panther's resounding 26 - 0 win over the New Zealand Warriors.
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Burton, who faced criticism after failing to make a field goal in the Panther's bruising 14 - 14 draw with the Newcastle Knights in round 3, crossed the line twice in the first half and credited his team-mates for putting in a 'huge effort'.
"One hundred percent it was a very different week to last week and it was a huge effort for the boys to come back from what happened last week after such a short turnaroud," Burton told NRL.COM.
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"Yeah, a massive effort from the boys to come back from last week."
Burton, who spoke about a new determination heading into the fourth round, said the halves partnership had only needed to fix a few mistakes to spur them to their dominant win.
"Ivan said to me throughout the week, just get yourself more into the game and I felt that tonight, I really felt those few early touches and really put myself in a better position," Burton said.
"We just needed to fix a few things up the middle and obviously our jobs at halves we had to take over and get back to our points and then focus on our next job."
Burton plucked a lost ball following a kick from Jarome Luai and dove across the line twelve minutes in for his first try to put the first points on the board for the Panthers, then slipped through the Warriors line to chase a charge-down and burst another 50 metres for the second.
The manoeuvre drew praise from the likes of Michael Ennis and other commentators and Burton was pleased with his increased mileage after the game, but acknowledges there's still work to do.
"I probably have to focus on taking over a bit more, being a younger fella in the side, try and grow that and for myself, just getting that confidence to step up and lead the side around," Burton said.
"The team's gelling together really well, it's always a bit iffy at the start when you get those different combinations, but it's coming together really well."
The Panthers will need everything they can muster next up, with them set to take on the as of yet undefeated Parramatta Eels in round five, at Bankwest Stadium on Friday.
"We take a lot of confidence out of tonight, I think, we just need to keep working on a few extra things, so it's looking really good for next week," Burton said.