STEVE Cotterill has admitted he is annoyed at the suggestion striker Kyle Lafferty is on the verge of becoming a Fulham player.

A commentator for the Irish BBC channel admitted, on air, during Wednesday night's televised Euro 2008 qualifier between Northern Ireland and Leichtenstein, in which Lafferty scored the final goal in a 3-1 win, that he had earlier quizzed the Clarets youngster about speculation regarding a reunion with his former international boss Lawrie Sanchez at Craven Cottage.

Burnley have already turned down an offer from Fulham, believed to be around £2million. It was anticipated the Premier League outfit would return with an improved bid, although this has not yet been the case.

"It's rubbish they should speak to him at training asking when is he going to join Fulham? That's poor," Cotterill said.

"You can't stop it, but it doesn't stop you being annoyed at it, when someone's talking about your player like that.

"But I have''t had any more phonecalls about him, and I don't really want any.

"I've said it time and time again, Kyle is a good young player and we want to keep him.

"I can't sit here and say, hand on heart he won't be leaving, because if you get a massive bid for him and he leaves, and someone says I said he wasn't leaving ... so I can't say that.

"Every player has his price, but they are nowhere near our valuation of Kyle, and don't ask what that is, because you won't be told!

"And we don't want to sell him anyway, he's a good young player that we have brought through.

"When I first came through and people said we'd had one player through in 20 years, Richard Chaplow, and I said we have to at least double that while I'm here, which we have.

"I don't want to devalue Chris McCann, but if you can bring a kid through, the most important thing is to bring through a striker, because if do you sell them, they're worth more money than anyone else."

Lafferty's valuation may have increased on the back of his first competitive international goal, and Cotterill revealed he was proud of the Enniskillen-born front man.

"It was a proud night for all of us," he said, adding of fellow Northern Ireland stars Michael Duff and Steve Jones, Iceland midfielder Joey Gudjonsson and Albanian ace Besart Berisha, who were also on international duty in midweek: "We're very proud we had five internationals, and it's a great achievement.

"I obviously didn't get to see Bes and Joey, but the three Irish boys I have seen.

"I watched it on the television, and I was pleased. Michael Duff played very well, it was good to see Jonesy get on the pitch, and I was pleased for Kyle to get his goal."

The quintet were due to report back at Turf Moor today in preparation for tomorrow's home game against Queen's Park Rangers.

QPR have won only one league game in 12 league meetings at Turf Moor, and Cotterill is seeking to make amends following last week's disappointing defeat at Scunthorpe United.

"We've just got to move on from that one, as you have with any defeat. You have to try to take the positives out of the game and move forward," he said.